Meeting called to order by Vice Chairman Joseph Graceffo with a salute to the flag.
ROLL CALL:
John Di Meglio William Rucci
Mayor Dan Mahler (arrived 8:12pm) David Slater
Joseph Graceffo Ed O’Connell
Kevin Platt John Shutte
PRESENT: Attorney Steven Veltri and Engineer Michael Cristaldi
ABSENT: Chairman Gilbert Foulon and Member Eugene Verba
READING: Open Public Meeting Announcement
This is a Regular Meeting of the Wanaque Borough Planning Board and adequate notice has been given and it has been duly advertised by the placement of a notice in the Trends and the Herald News, mailed on January 16, 2009 and a notice thereof has been posted on the bulletin board in the Municipal Building in the Borough of Wanaque and a copy thereof has been on file with the Borough Clerk.
MINUTES: from the May 21, 2009 Meeting.
MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member DiMeglio, seconded by Member Rucci, voting yes were Members Di Meglio, Graceffo, Platt, Rucci, Slater, O’Connell and Shutte.
COMMUNICATIONS REPORT: File letter regarding notification of a Wetlands Application on 18 Dupont Avenue, Haskell, NJ
APPLICATIONS STATUS REPORT: Eng. Cristaldi said he has no new applications to report.
PROFESSIONAL PLANNERS PRESENTATION ON THE HIGHLANDS
Tom Carroll, Borough Administrator gave a brief summary of the Borough’s position with the Highlands Council and COAH.
In 2004, then Governor McGreevey signed the Highlands Act, which put a lot of things into place as far as planning that needs to be done through the Highlands Council. The Borough has opted to participate in the Highlands Process. Fortunately, most of the planning process is being funded by the Highlands Council. Mr. Suljic is a retired Planner for the County of Passaic and is very familiar with the Highlands Process. He and Mr. Tessier have been working on the various Modules that the Highlands Council has put out. Working with the Highlands, they are asking us what information we have and to verify the information they have rather than doing a broad-brush approach to what COAH did in putting the affordable housing numbers together. It has been a little bit more intensive in looking at what we have, but confident that the Plan they will have for Wanaque will be more accurate than what COAH did as far as the housing element. With regards to the housing element, and we are just starting that process now and should be receiving a report from Art Bernard shortly, we are going to be getting new numbers on our affordable housing requirements based on the Highlands. We are both in the Highlands Preservation and the Highlands Planning areas. Right now, we are doing the study as if the entire Borough is in the Preservation Area. We are doing this for two main reasons. Firstly, if we took the planning area, which is basically Haskell, out of the Highlands Preservation Study, we would then have to go through the State Planning Process for the Haskell Town Center Designation. By keeping Haskell in the Preservation Area, we can get the Town Center Designation through the Highlands Council. Second is COAH. If the Haskell Section went outside of the Preservation Area, we would have to do a Housing Element for Haskell and a separate Module for the rest of the town that is in the Preservation Area. We are looking at the entire town as being the Preservation Area. The studies being done will give us a better idea as to whether or not this is the proper route to go. It looks better for the Borough to be totally in the Preservation Area to accomplish what we want, which is a reasonable affordable housing number and to be able to attain the Town Center Designation for Haskell again.
Tom Carroll, Borough Administrator, turned the meeting over to Fred Suljic and Bob Tessier from Dykstra Associates to talk about the Highlands.
Bob Tessier, Planning Director for Dykstra Associates: Worked for over 20 years in planning, a New Jersey Licensed Professional Planner, Member of American Institute of Certified Planners, Masters Degree in Planning from the University of Michigan and has worked with towns as a Town Planner and worked with private developers. Also sat on the Planning Board in Sparta Township for a while.
Fred and I are working on this Highlands Plan Conformance. Fred Suljic is a former Planning Director for Sussex County.
Highlands Initial Assessment has been given to all members of the Planning Board.
Mr. Tessier:
He advises that the Highlands Council has money set aside for funding for all 88 municipalities in the Highlands Region. They are over 80 municipalities participating in the process. It is mandatory in the Preservation Area and it is optional in the State Planning Area, which has no funding.
The Initial Assessment is just a look at where your municipality is, what ordinances you have in place, what documents you have in place, as opposed to what the Highlands Regional Master Plan has in place. This is a comparison between what Wanaque has, what the Highlands has and the actions that need to be taken to be able to come into conformance with the Highlands Regional Master Plan.
The Initial Assessment that has been prepared shows the first two designation of land and the important one, which is across from page 5 of the report, shows the Planning Area and the Preservation Area. There is a lot of development in town that is in the Preservation Area and will be controlled one way or another by the Highlands Regional Master Plan. To distinguish between State Planning or Highland Planning, there is also a Land Use Capability Map, which has been developed for all municipalities in the Highlands Region and shows separate zones based upon soils and water quality. With approval, we’ll send this Initial Assessment to the Highlands Council. They will review it and give us their comments.
The Highlands Council created a database (across from page 12), Base Map. By participating in the process, we now have on our Cad System the entire database they have created. They have every lot and block in the Borough on this database in a mapping format and data file with each lot listed. In the first module that they gave us, there is a spreadsheet and they pre-populate that as to whether there is development, whether septic or sewer, and whether it can be developed or is zoned to be developed. In addition, they made some assumptions about water capabilities and sewer capacity. This is just a factual check. We viewed an aerial photo and met with the Borough Administrator, talked to your utility people and made modifications to that on a lot by lot and took the database, went through the analysis and sent it back to them. The Council verified that information and sent it back to us, which is Module 2. On each one of these, they have an informational training session on all the Modules and explain to you how to manipulate this database. I am fairly confident that we have an accurate portrayal in this Module 1 and Module 2. On this basis, they are going to do some adjustment to your COAH numbers because you are in the Highlands. The previous numbers done by the Highland Council for all 88 municipalities are being adjusted down.
Vice Chairman Graceffo asked Mr. Tessier, “Are you capable with this review of the first two Modules to determine really what growth potential Wanaque has in say five or ten years from now with the anticipated population may be or number of housing growth?” Mr. Tessier advised it is not part of the process, but when they come back with the COAH numbers in Module 3, you have to resolve all those assumptions.
Tom Carroll said there will be an RDP, Realistic Development Potential, that will give us a number for what they feel will be a build-out for Wanaque, which we will then argue and negotiate. It will give us a fair number as to what they think that is possible to happen. Taking into account the requirements they have in the Preservation Area, that is where, looking at the property we have on Union Avenue, we really don’t have large swaths of open land. We are looking more at re-development. It is going to be a marriage of the rules of COAH and what Highlands come up with. To answer your question, we will get a better number and a better idea of what we can do because they are going to take into account in this our sewer capacity, our water capacity, all the other infrastructure that we have and come up in a formula base with what they think the development potential is for the town.
Vice Chairman Graceffo: “Do you see the view of the State where they are going to try and create a larger number in terms of development or a smaller number for the town in terms of where we are right now. For example, do you think we are going to be arguing about a potential growth of 15,000 to 18,000 people or are we looking for 12,000 or 13,000.” Tom Carroll thinks this process is going to reduce the number of what our build-out number would be. A part of that number, which may not get factored into this, is the re-development number because they are looking more at the vacant land. We don’t have those ten-acre lots that can be subdivided. Our COAH number right now is 275 units, which would require us to build 1,500 units. That number was never adjusted when Pulte from 1180 down to 755 so that is not a real number. We did prepare a Round 3 Housing Element Application, which we submitted about three years ago, but with the Highlands coming in and that was extended and our Housing Element has to be submitted or we have to be to Court by December 9, 2009. We just went to a seminar last week to start talking about how they are going to do the COAH numbers. They haven’t given us those numbers yet. They are still waiting for this information to get in from other municipalities. Art Bernard, our COAH Planner was there, and he is putting his proposal together so that we can authorize him to move ahead and start all the background information that they have. A lot has been done; just needs to be updated. When the numbers are done, we can sit down and do and argue on a realistic number for Wanaque. Our population is about 12,000. One of the caveats to all this is that our Round 1 and Round 2 numbers stay the same. Round 2 number is 275. We are going to make the argument that that number is wrong and a lot of that work has already been done because that was in our original Round 3. We are going to take most of what we did on our original Round 3, use that to get our numbers reduced and then come up with a new Round 3 number.
Vice Chairman Graceffo asked if these numbers included the Pulte development. Tom Carroll advised that originally the Pulte number was 60 units based on formula of 300 units on the Pulte site. That was accepted by COAH. Pulte’s numbers came in higher, nobody ever said anything to us, and nobody ever advised us that we had to go to 20%. That was the number they had agreed to on the Pulte site. Just as our Housing Element was getting ready to approve, COAH said we needed 20% of 1180 or 200+ units and so that is why our number went up to the 275. That number needs to be adjusted down because it is now 775 but realistically the 20% of the 775 units will never get built. Mr. Tessier said that work that was done and sent in Module 1 and Module 2 is what they are using to make these initial determinations that your consultant who is preparing the proposal will use for COAH. That is Module 3.
Module 4 is an Environmental Resource Inventory and that is where they do mapping for the region. We will review that with you and the Borough Administrator for accuracy as to forested areas, etc. We just started that process.
With Module 5, they are preparing a Highlands Element to your local Master Plan, which will bring your Master Plan into conformance with the Highlands Regional Master Plan. We don’t know what this really is yet because we have not received anything. Vice Chairman Graceffo confirmed that, before we do our Master Plan, this is the information we would need. The information would suggest you modify as far as your goals, objectives and land use strategies to come into compliance with the Highlands Regional Master Plan. A typical example would be that, if you didn’t have a wellhead protection ordinance, you would have to set one up. It sets up policies that it has and suggests that you add those to your Master Plan as another Element so that you Master Plan is in compliance with theirs.
Basically, first and second phase is the data phase. Three is based on what you have built out, what your capacity is, here is your COAH numbers and Housing Element. The next step is to look at their suggested Master Plan and their Policies and add them as an amendment to your Master Plan.
Tom advised that one of the things that will have to be incorporated into our Master Plan is their final mapping as to development versus no development. When we go and look at our zoning, the Townsend Road area which is all on septic and larger lots, based upon what their final recommendations are, and while the Highlands says they are recommendations, you are not going to get your Master Plan certified unless you agree to their recommendations, that we are going to need to do something with that area in order to make sure that there are no more development over there. No one is coming in for a subdivision and selling off three lots, or something like that because it goes against what their basic philosophy is. It behooves us to wait until they get to this recommendation process and develop all their philosophies so that we don’t end up doing our Master Plan, they review it and they reject it.
There are two ways to comply with COAH. One of which is going directly to COAH and the other is going through the Highlands process and preparing the COAH. If you go directly to COAH they are giving you the numbers. If you go through Highlands, Highlands is giving you the numbers based on what the Highlands. You would still have to go through Highlands. Mr. Tessier said the Highlands will not do Plan Conformance unless you have an accepted COAH Plan because their fear is that, if you don’t have an accepted COAH Plan and you have gotten your Highlands Conformance, and you agree only to build a certain number of units, then the Court can come in and bust the plan.
Vice Chairman Graceffo believes the fact that we are in the Highlands Preservation Area and are impacted by the Highlands Act that that would immediately restrict your housing development and, at the same time you are restricting housing development, you are restricting COAH development. You also restrict the non-residential, which is the commercial side, which brings all your numbers down proportionately.
Per Tom, we are going to end up with a less number; however, we still have to have the Plan in effect and as we go through the re-development all over town, there is going to be a firm requirement that 20% of all residential be built in town. This carved in stone. Also, all of the commercial re-development has a residential component to it where they are going to have establish additional low/moderate income housing based upon a formula.
Highlands Council is on the side of the municipality because they are arguing with COAH to get these numbers as low as possible. It is an active thing that the two are meeting all the time. Going through the Highlands process has been probably the best process Tom’s been through with a State Agency because they are actually asking the right questions and looking to do the right numbers up to now. When you look at what we have for as a potential for realistic development of open space, the only place you have is Union Avenue behind the lake, which may be impossible to develop, and the north side, which has steep slopes and other environmental constraints. Anything else is going to be re-development.
Mr. Suljic says the key is we have a lot of sewage that is assigned and the key is, in terms of the preservation area itself where they would normally be no growth, it exists right in the area of your Town Center. So by having your designated Town Center it is a tremendous advantage. The other thing we would like guidance from the Board on is help to get the designation for the Midvale Center area to bring that in because that all has sewer and that is a case we can make now and that they can support. Plus you would end up with a lower COAH number. It has been a benefit that Wanaque has been doing the re-development projects, which a lot towns have held back on doing. You have been very progressive about this.
Some of the discussions Tom has had with Art Bernard is that, as this process moves along, it may be more advantageous for us to actually file and go to Superior Court and get a realistic number that route as opposed to going to COAH. This is a strategy that we will develop as we go through the process. There are municipalities doing both in the Highlands area. If we go to Court, COAH would not interject their numbers. They would not become a party to it. The Court’s decision would be final. Tom anticipates the Board could prepare an RFP for the Master Plan towards the end of the year and we then we can put it into next year’s budget. All of this information will be done and be ready to go.
The total grant that we are getting right now for all the Modules is $50,000. However, we can apply for a $10,000 COAH budget and we can apply for additional funding because it will be more than that. Tom understands that they have been granting additional funds. Mr. Tessier advised that the base-funding amount is $50,000 but you are eligible to receive up to $100,000. We have already received $50,000. Page 38 shows suggested amounts for each stage that has been prepared to try and get the full $100,000 if needed. We can use some of this funding to help the Board move towards some of your other objectives, growth issues, especially in component Module 5 relating to the Midvale Center or any other potential re-development areas, including working towards completing the Master Plan. We need to tell the Highlands early on, rather than later, if there is anything under consideration.
Vice Chairman Graceffo recommended that the gentlemen continue their presentation and any other questions be held until the end.
Mr. Tessier continued with Module 6. They are coming up with regulations and ordinances that they want all municipalities to adopt, pretty much verbatim. Module 7 is the final conformance documents and it is at that point that a decision can be made about including the Plan or not.
Mr. Suljic:
He discussed with the Board some of the items that are suggested in the Initial Assessment and that the Highlands is looking for to come into compliance with.
Page 15, Consistency Review, shows areas that we have to address and we have done that. Page 17 shows the actions needed from the Borough to achieve the RMP (Regional Master Plan) Consistency. When I worked for Sussex County for those 25 years, I was the coordinator for the water quality and waste-water management programs so I am familiar with these requirements.
Page 17, Open Waters And Riparian Areas – Borough already has a Storm Water Management Plan, but one of the key things is updating the Municipal Waste Water Management Plan, which is in the process right now of being updated. Mr. Suljic advises this has to be done, because without this updated Plan we won’t be able to do anything. This is a component of a Section 208 under Federal Law of the Clean Water Act. You need a Plan with regard to how you are going to manage that expanded, consolidated, look at other BMP practices with gray water, black water separation, how you treat, where it gets disposed of, what you do with the sludge, and do you compost it. All of these things come into being.
Vice Chairman Graceffo made a comment about the Sewer Authority submitting Waste Water Management Plans time and time again. Tom Carroll advised the regulations have changed. For years, the Regional Sewerage Authority submitted the Plan. The rules changed about two or three years ago which put the requirements for Waste Water Management Plan on the County. However, the County had an opt-out clause that if the County did not want to do it, it then fell to the Municipality. Passaic County opted out and at the last Council Meeting, the Council adopted a Resolution for a $10,000 Grant from the State to assist in the payment of preparation of the Waste Water Management Plan. However, we have delegated that responsibility to the Local Sewer Authority and Bill Kelly will be doing that. Also, the sewer plant will not be expanded. With the 208 Regulations with the Wanaque River being a trout-producing stream, there is no way the plant can ever be expanded especially under the current regulations.
Page 20, Steep Slopes – Borough already has an ordinance on steep slopes. Highlands has them mapped out. They will look at the Ordinance and see if it conforms to their requirements. Basically anything over 20% they don’t want to see it buildable, and they want to see low impact between the 15% and 19.9%.
Page 22, Critical Habitats – Again, looking at your conservation element, looking at the critical habitat areas as defined in the RMP, ordinance consistent with RMP objectives and revising the land use regulations so that they comply with the overall rules of the Highlands.
Page 23, Land Preservation And Stewardship – Borough does have an open space plan and we do address stewardship strategies. Highlands would like the Borough to update that and identify projects or parcels for preservation on a development application, looking at easements if they can enforceable and revising the land use regulations to encourage cluster provisions. There are not that many parcels of land that are left. Probably what will happen is that, if we look at transfer of development rights in the areas that are in the preservation area outside of the Town Center, where if they meet the waivers and the exemptions, they can still build on the lots that have been created as of August 10, 2004. If there is someone else with ten or fifteen acres, there are not many of those spots where they would try to develop and do a subdivision, they would be unable to do that subdivision.
Vice Chairman Graceffo asked about someone owning a parcel of land of fifteen acres, brought about ten or fifteen years ago when it could have been developed, and now because of the Highlands area cannot be developed, is the town going to be impacted by these people walking away from the property because now it can’t be developed? Tom Carroll advised of one parcel, about 40 acres, that is up behind Scrivani Drive and it was just sold to Land Conservation Group, who purchased it with open space funds; the balance of Mountain Lakes Estates however that ends up; and the properties on Union Avenue. Those are the only large properties that we have left that are developable. Any issues regarding the Mountain Lakes property will not be answered until there is a ruling from the DEP Commissioner. It did go before the Administrative Law Judge who said that they can have all their permits back and the matter is now before the DEP Commissioner. If the Commissioner agrees with the Administrative Law Judge, his approvals pre-date the Highlands Act, so the original development comes back in total.
Page 24, Carbonate Rock Topography – There are no designation of carbonate rock in the Borough.
Page 25/26, Water Supply And Quality – Borough does have a wellhead protection ordinance in place. The Environmental Resource Inventory has to look at the areas of water deficit and net water. A problem that comes up is they do a general analysis model and they tell everybody they have a deficit and it is just simply not true in a lot of municipalities. We know what our water production numbers are and right now, for any potential development coming into town, we have sufficient water based on the pump station that we did at Storms Avenue.
Page 28, Borough of Wanaque Plans & Regulations – Relates to the town’s Waste Water Management Plan, Utility Services Plan that would be done as part of the Master Plan, and revised land use element supporting any revised zoning district densities. This is key if there is any thought or aspirations for any other areas in the town for re-development, we need to get that information included in this process.
When the town went through the Haskell Town Center process, one of the suggestions Tom Carroll received from the State Planning Commission was that we consider making the Midvale area a center also. Given the pain that we went through to get the Haskell Town Center at that point, it was decided not to go through the expense and process for Midvale. It is a lot easier to do it now through the Highlands process. We need to re-establish the Haskell Town Center and look to create a Midvale Center for whatever benefits we might be able to get. Preliminary discussions have been done, but we need to take it to the next level. Mr. Suljic recommends not putting this off for a few years down the road because we need to argue this now and he thinks we can make that argument very valid, but he needs the Board’s input to get it into the Highlands Element and get it a part of the prelude to the Master Plan. We can’t wait until next year to bring this issue up, it needs to be brought up within the next two meetings.
Page 36 & 37 just talks about the Policy Directions which the town’s voluntary plan conformance, which follows these Modules.
Vice Chairman Graceffo: What areas are we specifically looking at?
Tom Carroll: From about Railroad Avenue up to about Stephens. There is a Transportation Trust Fund Grant for centers in place. Early on, having the Center in Haskell did get us some more funding from DOT in our regular applications. We now have a very good reputation with the DOT in getting funds because we do re-construction as opposed to just mill and pave. We made the argument that, having the Town Center in Haskell, and the improvements we made on Bergen, Decker, Fourth, Whistler Place, all helped with the center designation. Even with any additional costs, Tom feels it would be a benefit to have a Midvale Center rather than not.
Graceffo: Do we want another zone that really can’t compete in the community with the first zone? For example, if you take a section and try and put in new storefronts or upgrade storefronts, can the community support another business zone or re-development zone?
Carroll: Given the anchor that we have in the Haskell Town Center and what we have planned south of Doty Road, that the majority of the retail/commercial office done in town is going to be centered in the Haskell Section for one specific reason, closest to Route 287 and the access on and off. What happens in Midvale is the ability to renovate or rehabilitate the buildings that are here. We did the re-development areas for the potential of moving the municipal building. We did the re-development for Rita’s and lot next door, which are probably the main open space there to do any type of re-development. It may open up some opportunities for improvements with areas, such as the King Center and the Midvale Sweet Shop area. You never know what the State is going to come through with. I would like to see Midvale designation more for improvements and rehabilitation rather than the buying of and knocking down of property like in Haskell.
Graceffo: If the view is to rehabilitate some of the existing buildings from storefronts to apartments that would satisfy your COAH, would that be part of a re-development approach?
Carroll: This is something we could consider in going through that process. We have an ordinance in place that does not allow for the conversion of storefronts to apartments. You could do that through the re-development process. The best approach would be, when we go through the review of the Master Plan, take an inventory of what we have north of the reservoir and seeing which of those properties make sense to possibly do conversions. We would look at location and the availability of parking. If they don’t have parking for residential, it is not going to make any sense. One concept is do we change the face of Ringwood Avenue north of the reservoir so that it becomes less commercial and more residential and south of the reservoir to be more commercial? The other would be similar to Newark Pompton Turnpike in Riverdale where a lot of the larger houses have been allowed to convert to accessory uses of offices with parking and you would have commercial offices and residential areas.
At the September meeting, we should know where we are with COAH and talk about the Master Plan and Modules so we know what direction we are going in.
Graceffo: We formed a committee last month to deal with the discussion of the Master Plan and we did appoint Alaimo as our Master Planner to work with Albert Associates. We have a lot of people talking to us in terms of who is responsible for providing information and who we should be dealing with.
Carroll: Alaimo has been appointed as a Planner to the Planning Board back in 1997 to complete the Town Center designation. That is the only work Alaimo has done for planning for the last ten years. There has been very little need for specific planning over the last ten years, other than the redevelopment, which we have been doing through Bob Benecke. Fred was originally working with Bob Benecke, which is how he got involved with doing the Highlands because he was intimately involved in the regulations right from the beginning. We brought Fred on, he has since left Benecke and joined Dykstra, but we kept our relationship with Fred. Ken Albert is a planner in Benecke’s firm and also sits on the State Planning Commission. We went out for an RFP two years ago and both the Borough and Planning Board appointed him as a planner, but again, we have not had instances of need to use him in the straight planning sense because we haven’t had any major applications come before the Planning Board in the last two years. The procedure to go forward with the Master Plan would be either to select Alaimo, Ken, Dykstra or put out a general RFP for planners to come in and submit proposals to do it. We’ve only done this for planning services for the Borough and for planning services for the Planning Board and this is when we received proposals from Alaimo and Ken and the Board chose both. When we go out for RFP next year, you have the opportunity to select one of them and then there is no further requirements to go out for RFP, or we do a general RFP specifically for the Master Plan and have any number of planners come in and I guarantee you will have twenty to thirty applications that we will go through and decide who will be best to do the Master Plan.
Graceffo: I thought we did that this year when we put out a request for planners.
Carroll: We got Alaimo and Ken Albert.
Atty Veltri: What I heard and what I think the intent of the Planning Board was that we selected Mr. Albert because of his expertise in this area. We were going to re-examine, and are re-examining the Master Plan this year. The question that we had was, what do we need to incorporate into the Master Plan this year to comply with the requirements. I was not aware that this plan was so close to being done and that these gentlemen were working on it and had your strategy mapped out, which is embodied in this document. I personally was under the impression that this was what Mr. Albert was going to tell the Board. When we look here tonight, this is already done and we are going to be working on the Master Plan this year, we thought with Mr. Albert. Reading this, it looks like we already know now what we need to do, unless we want to pay Mr. Albert to check it. Now we just need to do it.
Carroll: Putting the procedures in place, before we begin the re-examination of the Full Master Plan, we need to have completed the Highlands portion of it and have the Highlands blessing on its portion so that when we go into doing the Master Plan, this gets incorporated into the overall Master Plan. This is not reviewing zoning or uses, this is reviewing where you can and cannot develop, which is being told to us by a higher authority.
Atty Veltri: What was said at the very beginning is what confused me in terms of what Mr. Albert’s role was. You have page 39 and 40, a checklist of what is in our Master Plan and in our existing ordinances and then what we don’t have. If you were here on May 21st, that is exactly why we needed Mr. Albert to tell us what we needed to do this year to review our Master Plan. We did not know you guys were working on it or had this checklist prepared, which document is dated May 2009. Where we are confused is that we just retained somebody to do, we thought, or at least I thought, exactly what you already did.
Tessier: The basic format of this chart was created by the Highlands Commission and they have it in all their Initial Assessments. The Highlands, after they originally set out what they wanted the scope to be for the Initial Assessment, then they e-mailed all 88 towns this sheet and told them to add it.
Veltri: You gentlemen did a good and you went through specifics in terms of telling the town and Board what we need to do by way of ordinance, parts of the Master Plan that we need to adopt. Where we are confused is that is what we thought Mr. Albert was going to do for us.
Rucci: How much was in the budget to pay for this? How much has everyone charged?
Carroll: There is no money in the budget. When we move ahead with doing the Master Plan, the Mayor & Council will have to do a special emergency and are able to fund that out over five years out of surplus. There also may be more to be done in the Master Plan beyond this checklist because this checklist only addresses Highlands. It does not address everything else that has to go into a Master Plan. This component costs $15,000 and the money is coming out of the Highlands Grant. This Grant cannot be used for the Master Plan. We need to have this work done before the work on the Master Plan because in the RFP you want to be able to say this is the work that has already been done as opposed to doing it twice.
Atty Veltri: After tonight, we are going to start adopting things and working on the Master Plan. Are you gentlemen going to be doing anything else regarding all of the recommendations in this report or is Mr. Albert going to be doing it?
Tessier: I think we are going to be doing these Modules, which relate to the elements of the Borough’s actions that relate to the Highlands Plan.
Rucci: What is the cost projection?
Carroll: That is all on page 38.
Tessier: All our work is covered under that Grant.
Carroll: The initial grant was $50,000 and we can go back and apply for an additional $50,000 based upon what the costs are.
Carroll: Out of that $50,000, I believe the initial budget for the Housing Element was $5,000. I know that it is going to be at least tripe that amount. When I get Mr. Bernard’s proposal, I will go back to the Grants Person at the Highlands and say I need an additional $10,000 in my Grant because my estimate for this Module is $15,000 not $5,000.
Atty Veltri: I am looking at this from a practical point of view. For example, on page 17 you say right in the middle, Amended Master Plan to include community forest plan element, and all through this report you make recommendations like that, which I think are excellent and good and they are all on that checklist, my question is, in terms of the Planner that we are going to rely on, are we relying on Mike’s firm to do that, Albert’s firm to do that or are you guys going that? And, now that we know what we need to do, do we need Albert or can Mike’s firm just do it? Those are the questions I have so when we come back in September, we know who we are dealing with and we know what we are doing because we also had a deadline at the end of the year for our Master Plan and we don’t want to waste time in terms of who we are dealing with and who is doing what. I don’t care who does it and I don’t care about the money aspects from a legal point of view. I just need to know who we are going to rely on when we get to page 17 and I say who’s doing this.
Carroll: Going through this process, they are identifying what we need to do. Whoever is doing the Master Plan, is going to give us the implementation of what is required for the Highlands but he has to go even further in all of the other elements of the Master Plan beyond what the Highlands requires.
Graceffo: What is Mike’s firm, Alaimo, going to do?
Atty Veltri: Is Alaimo not capable of doing that?
Carroll: Alaimo is capable of doing it. Albert’s capable of doing it.
Rucci: Alaimo is who the Board had appointed to do this. Isn’t that correct? That is the way I remember it.
Atty Veltri: I don’t know; that is why I am confused and that is why we are laying this out.
Graceffo: Back in December, when we put out a request for a Master Planner, because we had to revise our Master Plan or redevelop our Master Plan, and there was only like two proposals and we said we were going to re-advertise and it came back with just Alaimo.
Carroll: If we want to put it back out on the street for a Planner to prepare the Master Plan, that can be done very easily.
Mike Cristaldi: Joe, you did authorize us to do it. We got our Planner started and brought him here for a presentation and now you are telling me, what, we shouldn’t have done what we did?
Graceffo: That is my concern. We are out of sorts right now Tom in that we thought we had a requirement to redo our Master Plan. Some time back in January or February, we appointed Alaimo as our Master Plan Engineer. Then we got informed that Albert was going to be working to help the Town Council develop the Master Plan and Mike was willing to work with him. That is where we were last meeting and at that meeting we developed a committee and one of the questions I asked Dan was what are the requirements money wise and who are we going to obligate ourselves to work with to move it along. I understand their function is to provide us the language and structure to develop and the Highlands impact.
Carroll: Sitting here as the Administrator, I do not have a proposal from any planner that says I am going to prepare your Master Plan in conformance with the state requirements and incorporate the requirements of the Highlands for x number of dollars.
Cristaldi: This is why we came here last month to discuss with you guys. That is what we were talking about. This report could not have been done since the last meeting. Why even have us come here and do all this discussion and then, out of nowhere, this report surfaces? You must have had known it was out there, why didn’t you say something instead of making us go through all this.
Shutte: Whose responsibility was it to tell you Mike? Why would the Council hire them if we had two guys already picked?
Carroll: This process has been going on for almost a year.
Tessier: In some other towns, we are doing these Highlands Assessments, creating all this data for the Council, then all this data at the end of this process can be utilized by whoever the Planning Board picks as a foundation to do their Master Plan.
Carroll: Fred was here in October or November to go over all this. At this stage, this is what my recommendation is. We need to compile and finish the Modules of the Highlands Assessment and that will be done within the next three months. The estimate cost is $98,000 and this is being done with the approval of the Council. The Planning Board needs to be involved because in hiring a planner needs to get a proposal from whatever planner to do the Master Plan and have the knowledge and ability to incorporate the requirements of the Highlands and the information that comes out of the final report and requirements from the Highlands Council. When all is said and done, we are going to have a document that has the checklist in here and is going to give us an implementation schedule and within 18 months of getting the final report from the Highlands, all municipalities in the Highlands must update their Master Plans. That is the law. It was anticipated that the update of the Master Plan would happen after the Highlands Assessments and all the information on the Highlands would be done.
Atty Veltri: That is where we are having the problem, really two problems. If you look at the last time we re-examined the Master Plan, we were focused on re-examining and re-doing the Master Plan this year, not eighteen months from now. That’s number one. Number two, to avoid future confusion, I am looking at two pages in this document, page 34 lists some Master Plan items then I am looking at your Module List on page 38 which also, in my mind, incorporates all of those things in the $98,000 price. Now this is where the confusion is---if you fellows are going to do that, why are we, as a Planning Board, retaining another planner to do the very same thing.
Suljik: I think there are more things you need to do to update a Master Plan.
OPEN TO PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None/Closed
RESOLUTIONS: None
VOUCHERS: None
DISCUSSION:
MOTION TO ADJOURN AT 9:55 P.M.: carried by a voice vote.
______________________________
Jennifer A. Fiorito
Planning Board Secretary