Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Adequate notice of this meeting of Mer Council was sent to the Aspberry Park Press and the Coar official newspapers and posted on the burrow's website and bulletin board. Take roll call. Council Donovan here. Council McKenna here. Councilman here. Mayor here. And Councilman Delasio's ask. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops, their families, and our first responders. Thank you. First item on the agenda is the workshop discussion. Any uh council members have uh anything to discuss during the workshop once. Oh, I've got some questions about one of the ordinances we're going to be voting on. No, we can discuss that now. Discuss it now.

Okay. It's going to involve the redevelopment attorney. Okay. Um, my questions, um, I'm a little bit concerned over the the larger overlay zone um because so many residents seem to be affected by that. When were we first made aware that we were going to need an ordinance to meet the meet the um, requirements of the declaratory judgement?

It was always included in um I don't know if this ordinance was specifically included in the first adopted housing element fair share plan. Back in June, the burrow adopted a version of the housing element fair share plan and then as the negotiations continued and challenges were filed against the housing element fair share plan. This was part of the negotiations and satisfying the burough's obligation both as part of uh um its realistic development potential but then also as we've discussed at previous meetings unmet need. So the first time this ordinance was intro was was brought before specifically before council was when it was introduced um I have that in February 27th I think was the meeting was the first time this ordinance was specifically introduced with this overlay zone

the the ordinance I understand but when when was it decided with the um the judge that he was going to want that or she was going to want that they were going to want that as part of the agreement. Uh Christine Bell, the planner, can speak to it as well. Okay.

So, um the way the process all worked was we had to adopt a housing element um by the end of June and have that on file, which we did. Um and then any challengers, interested parties had until the end of August to file their challenge. Um we did not include this overlay ordinance in the housing element that was adopted in June. Uh but fair share housing center as well as 7th a and the 4th Avenue developments file challenges um before the September 1st deadline. So then we had from September 1st to December 31st to negotiate with them and settle um settle our uh housing plan. Um and it was through those negotiations um as part of our settlement with fair share we had to uh adopt they wanted more overlays than the one we had as the third grand plan along um main street. So that's kind of where this that's where this uh comes from. It's part of the stat state statutory requirements for the foreground. you have to um demonstrate that you can meet 25% of your unmet need um if you take a vacant land adjustment through overlay zoning for redevelopment opportunities. Um we originally anticipated that we could just use that main street overlay, but they felt that was part of the third round and we needed additional overlay zoning for redevelopment opportunities for this round. So that's when that came to be. And how was this overlay zone decided upon?

We're jumping back and forth. Yeah, sorry about that.

So, um, as Miss Bell mentioned, this was part of the negotiations with both the program judge, which was Judge Bookbinder, and the, uh, special adjudicator, which was, um, Frank Banish, and also with Fair Share Housing Center. Uh, this was part of the negotiations to reach that settlement. So, as Miss Bell mentioned, originally some things were put forth as part of a proposal to meet the burough's obligations that was not um accepted by either the program judge or the special adjudicator. That was not sufficient. So there was some significant back and forth as to what would be what would what would resolve the outstanding issues the challenge specifically with fair sharehousing center and be acceptable and uh would be the subject of a recommendation from the special adjudicator to the program judge.

So was the delineation of this area um did they work with us on that to decide the fair share people or was this decided here in town? This was decided among the professionals with the administr with the administration as part of the back and forth. You know, we brought something to the table with the uh with the program judge that was not sufficient. So then we went back and worked with the administration and the planner to come up with what would be sat what would be what would satisfy the burough's unmet what would be acceptable to resolve the challenges.

Okay. Was any attempt to reach out to the people who could be affected by this to let them know there were changes to zoning in there where they now have single family homes and they could be subject to multi-unit affordable housing units. There was uh you know the public notice for introduction of an ordinance, the sub the notice um of the public hearing tonight and also the notice that it would be reviewed by the planning board. So there would be public hearings and an opportunity for the public to come out as they were notified.

And this I think um just to emphasize this is an overlay zone. So the underlying zoning in this area will still continue to exist. Um it's just uh any anyone who's interested could utilize either the existing underlying zoning or this affordable housing overlay. Okay. To uh develop a property. And I know it's been discussed in the past that if it doesn't pass, we'd be in default. Uh the deadline is the 15th of this correct month. Okay. Um but when you say we'd be in fault, what does that look like? What does that mean?

Uh the judge already issued a decision and an order for the bureau accepting the burough's housing element and fair share plan accepting uh a condition on all the bureau uh adopting all the ordinances and resolutions required under the housing element fair share plan which includes these overlay ordinances. So as part of as Miss Bell stated as we stated at introduction as part of meeting the bureau's obligation the bureau needs to adopt these overlay zones. if it does not adopt any of the legislation which has been represented in the housing element fair share plan which has already been approved by the judge uh which is by March actually 16th because the 15th is a Sunday the judge noted that it can be on the 16th but if the bureau doesn't do it by the 16th the court will not issue a judgment of compliance and repose and under the statute will be immediately stripped of its immunity right now the bureau has temporary immunity because it's participating in the program and it's done everything it said it's going to do. But as of March 16th, if it doesn't adopt all the resolutions, which is what the statutory requirement is, it will no longer be in compliance with the statute, and it will immediately be stripped of its immunity from builder's revenue lawsuits.

And there's no way to go back to the judge and say, "Hey, look, we never actually notified the residents in a way that is a little more comprehensive because even when you you want to put a hot tub in your backyard, you need to get a variance. You need to send out letters to everybody else." But this we're relying on a very passive uh passive mode of communicating to make sure that these people know. And I guarantee you they don't know that this is potentially a problem. And I'm not really comfortable with that. As a councilman who just last summer was telling people, hey, we're going to be transparent with you. We're going to come up here. We're going to make sure that you're not surprised. This is going to come as a surprise to people who are affected by that. in my opinion, feel free to disagree with me, but I think that that could be a potential problem is there. So, there's no plan. There's no ability to go back to the the judge and say, "We'd like 30-day extension to make sure that people know what's going on."

There's no this, as we've said in the past, the fourth round is very different from the third round with very, very, very aggressive timetables and very specific milestones that need to be met. And there is no flexibility within those timets. And it's come to my attention that it appears we can remove the overlay zone if we meet our I think it's 29 units uh once we've met that if we can remove the overlay zone.

That's correct. We've I've discussed this in the past that came up at the planning board. While it's not specifically addressed in the statute, it's our interpretation of the statute because this is again new. Fourth round is new. It's our interpretation of the statute that once the burough's unmet need obligation is met because that's the reason you're adopting this overlay zone. You would be able to rescend the overlay zone and this overlay zone goes to what to when I mean how long is this effective until we meet the when when are we required to meet the 29 units? You have 10 years it's a 10year period from 25 to 35 for the fourth round.

All right. So I guess that's part of the concern as well is that 10 years from now is anybody remember that we have the ability to remove that um if you know once we've met it or should it be codified in some type of an ordinance or adjustments made to the ordinance. I don't even know if there's time to make adjustments to the ordinance but perhaps a different ordinance that says it will be stripped out once we met our need. Is there any plan on anything like that?

Well I mean I would assume that future administrations will have redevelopment attorneys to advise them. So those attorneys would be it would be incumbent on them to keep the council apprised of what what's going on in the redevelopment area and they could easily say you know we have this overlay zone and at this point you know the council can remove it because we've met you know this this is going to be monitored over the next 10 years. It's not like we're going to do it tonight and it's going to just go in a draw and and people are going to forget about it. I mean this is a this is an ongoing process in terms of affordable housing for the next 10 years. So there will be a lot of interaction between in the future between redevelopment attorneys and the council as to as to what's happening. So I don't think there's any danger in people forgetting about the fact that there's an overlay zone and that at some point it could be removed. So I'll conclude my remarks by saying that I'm not comfortable with a couple things. Uh, I don't think that we've been transparent with the people who could be affected. Um, I'm not comfortable with the fact that this ordinance was dropped on the council and on the town with no opportunity to really make any substantive changes, ask any questions. This was introduced so close to the deadline that we have a terrible Sophie's choice. We either vote for the bad thing or we vote for the really bad thing. Um, so I'm concerned about that because it seems like we had enough time that we could have engaged with the public on this, especially the people who were affected. Um, but we didn't do that. And for the council to be this, and these are only my this is only my opinion, but I think for the council to have this surprise laid on them, so close on something so

substantial is something we need to work on as a burrow to make sure that these things are not happening going forward. I don't think that anybody up here I'm I'm personally a no vote on this. Okay, because of the um the lack of transparency. I don't think I'm going to win that. I don't expect to win that. I don't want to win it this time. I want to win it the next 10 times. Okay? so that we know that at the very least we've made every attempt to make sure that everybody's informed and then if we have to choose a less bad thing then we get the ability to do that at least being informed. I don't feel we were informed on this. Council, may I ask you a question?

Sure. Would your vote still be no if you knew all of us were voting no? Yes. So you would be comfortable with this failing and taking the worst option?

I would. I would be uncomfortable with being put in a position that we didn't have the right information to make that decision. I think we can all agree that this process has been uncomfortable for years and unfortunately the responsibility of being up here means that we are forced to make uncomfortable decisions and often the easy political vote is not the responsible one. I'll tell you all something. When this process started, I had someone in town call me and say, "You should vote no. You should vote no for everything. You're just do it." And I said, "What about what happens if it fails?" And he said, "It doesn't matter who cares. It'll look better for you." And I think about that all the time because I just I can't do that. Can you do that? I can't do that. Um, but I also think that one of the things that we haven't talked about fully up here is that this is not isolated to Belmar. And I don't mean that all the other towns around us are going through that. We all know that. We read the headlines. We see what's happening in Wall. We see what's happening in Bradley, whatever, Seagar. Um, what I'm talking about is that this is a law that was created in Trenton by people who do not fundamentally understand what we're working with down here. They're working in Elizabeth. They're working in Jersey City. They're working even I don't know. Yeah. Jackson, where there's more land, where there's denser buildings, and where they also aren't looking at the full effects of flooding and climate changes that we are. They didn't go through Sandy the way we did. they're not forced to think about their flood zones that one heavy building goes up. Um, and I think it's

part of our responsibility going forward to engage with the lead municipalities to engage with all these other organizations to try and change the law to inject a little bit more nuance into it going forward. So that maybe in 10 years we're not sitting here having the same conversation again.

I could just add we're not having any speakers until the public session. Okay. Thank you. Um if I could just add uh a few comments. Number one, but for the the people who objected to our original plan, as I said, which had to be done by um the objections had to be done in August 31st, um we would not have overlays zone. But people came in to the court and said, "Oh, no, no, no, no. you know, we can we can even provide more affordable housing for you if you let us build, you know, a five-story building on Ocean Avenue with parking underneath or if we could do something else. And at that point it became a situation where the burl now had to come up with an alternative because the court basically said and you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's really up to the community to decide how they want to meet the the ne the goal and you know it's not really up to the developer to come in and say oh we want we want to have you meet your goal by doing this. And so we were kind of like in between a rock and a hard place because we had to come up with something that would be acceptable to fair share housing basically mostly um and at the same time uh preserve the the look of the town preserve you know um the the uh annoying structures being built to to get to the affordable housing goal. And I think you know the overlay district is not something not something new. I mean if you if you look at the papers and and read what some of the other accommodations are many many uh towns are using this overlay district to

meet the goal and meet the requirements of fair share housing. So, uh, we, you know, in that regard, it's not it's not all that unusual to have that done. uh to look at the other side of the coin. If we if this is not approved tonight, we basically, you know, will the council or the the burrow will look at us and say basically we we haven't done our job because at that point the floodgates will open and you can you we can have a builder's remedy suit tomorrow in in superior court to say in that in that develop in that area and somebody could say well I own five lots there. Guess what? I'm going to build a six-story building there in the overlay zone in the projected overlay zone. And guess what? We can't do anything about it. So, if if we don't pass the required uh resolutions and ordinances tonight, you know, we don't have to worry about the people that are living in the overlay zone. We need to worry about the whole town because the whole town will be open to to builders remedy suits and and and then as we said we will lose control completely of our zoning. So it's a it's a hard choice but it's the choice that we make when we sit up here. you know, there are no perfect uh answers and you know, as a council person, yeah, it would it would have been nice to have an extended discussion with people about the overlay zones and have options presented as to what areas could be done and what areas shouldn't be used, whatever. But practically speaking, you know, this fourth round, as Councilwoman Dunovan said, was all created by the legislature. you know,

they set the timetable, they set the short dates, but we didn't have time to do that. So, as our as the representatives of the people, we had to make that decision. Okay? And that's what happens from time to time. You know, they elect us to make the tough decisions for them. And I think the process that we've been through um for the third round and now for the fourth round, I think everyone here has done the best they could. Again, you have to remember that it's not just our decision. We have to satisfy the fair share housing. We'd have to satisfy the uh the special master who's basically an agent of the court and then we have to satisfy the court. So, uh you know, it's not a matter of us having a lot of leverage in terms of what what we do. So I I I think the thing to keep in mind though is that could there have been more transparency? Probably if we had another three or four months to to do it. But I think we have to you have to be very very aware of what you'll be unleashing in the town if we vote tonight to say no, we're not going to do this. Everything from the last six, eight months will just basically be gone and we will have uh We could potentially have builder remedy suits in different areas of the town and you know that will be because um you know we did want to approve an overlay zone which no one might ever use you know because there is an option to to not use it. So I mean I think we have to keep that in mind when um when we come to that. The other thing you also have to remember too developers get property to build because people sell it to them. You know, and you know, we put a lot of onus on developers to say, "Oh, they

shouldn't have done that. They shouldn't have done that, but a lot of the developments we have that are going up are developments because people who live and reside in Delmare sold their property to those developers. So, you can't blame the developers 100%. You know, everybody wants to make money. I understand it. But, you know, they're they're in business and, you know, if you're willing to sell them your property and you have three lots, you know, or four lots and you say, "Yeah, I guess go ahead." You know, uh, give me what you can. Then the developer steps in and now he has a foothold in in in the uh in in the town. So, you got to remember all the recent developments that are going to be going up over the next few years, someone the developers that didn't own that property for 10 or 20 or 15 years. They just recently owned it. And they own it because someone in town decided to sell that property to them. Right? Whether that's good or bad, I'm not making that judgment, you know, but but we all have to realize that it's a process. you know, somebody sells the property, the developers come in, they say, "Oh, it's a great deal." They try to build what they want. Uh, we file our DJ action. We get them through the whole affordable housing process. We don't want this type of development throughout the whole town. So we developed these overlay districts to to be our uh way of satisfying the fair share housing in the port without necessarily uh bringing uh unwanted properties you know through build remedy suits into different areas. So that that's really the process and you know I think it's important for people to understand that too none of this is perfect. You know I I said at one of the council meetings it's not perfect. The developers want to make money and they want to build as much as they can and they want to profit

as much as they can. But if they're in if there's an overlay zone and they don't own any property in that overlay zone and they can't build in that overlay zone. But if you know if property gets sold in that overlay zone, you know, and it's enough for a developer to build a, you know, a a multif family house, then they're going to do it. So, I mean, that's really the that's really the the only risk we take, you know, if those homeowners remain homeowners for the next 10 years and nothing's going to get built. you know, if if they if but if uh you know, those 10 homeowners say, you know what, we can sell our lots to you know, ABC Corporation, we'll make a bundle, you know, then then they're going to use the overlay zone, which is okay because it's much better than saying we don't have an overlay zone and they're going to come in and build, you know, whatever they want because we've we've abandoned our affordable housing, fourth round affordable housing plan and now they're going to just be able to go to the court and say court, we want to this is what we want to do. We can give Belmore 30 affordable housing units, but we have to build an eight-story building. So, that that's the that's the risk that we take if we don't if we don't um pass this.

And I think quickly just to add to the comments in terms of timeliness, um I don't think there's anyone in the state of New Jersey that is happy with the expedited schedule this fourth round has been on. Um but the you know the March 151 16th deadline is like a hard statutory deadline. Uh the judge did not issue his order granting us temporary immunity until February 24th. Um so it really you know there wasn't a ton of time. Any other comments from the council

workshop? Okay. If not, we will then move on to petitions. April, mayor, have not received any petitions. Approval of minutes. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 27th meeting? I'll make that motion. Second. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman Kenny? Yes. Council member Rooney? Yes. Mayor Besco,

yes. at the course of council. Council woman may um I'd like to pay commitment to pay respects to Nan Corey. Uh she's a longtime Belmer resident with a very large and family family who loved her very much. Uh she worked at the cafeteria and Belar Elementary School for a long time and her husband Jean is a former beach director and Smer representative. Um so I believe her week is at Thursday at O'Brien's funeral home. So out in your memory. The next Balor Environmental Commission meeting is on Thursday. Um I wanted to take a minute and point out that this is the high time for geese. We do this every year. Um we have a um a dog who comes every day at least except Sundays I believe. Um they have based on reports into me, we're still have our resident geese population can be geese between 12 and 16 I believe which is down from that high 60 to 100 when we started this program. But I do want to let you guys know because we've said it before and people um aren't aware of this. There are other piece there. They're the grants. They're slightly smaller. They have a full black hood. Those are migratory and they are protected by federal law, which means we cannot do the same mitigation program with them as we can the Canadian geese. And unfortunately, they also don't seem to care about the dog as much. Which means the dog comes, they fly up in the air, they do around, they come back. The good news is that since they are migratory, they head up to the Arctic actually, um, they should be gone in about another month or so once the weather the warm weather holds. Um, so I never thought I would be up here talking about or know so much about happy to answer questions for you anytime you would like. Um, so um, the next tourism commission is tomorrow and harbor commission is on

March 17th. I would have scheduled that difference. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Kenny.

Thank you. Um, okay. So, next J commission meeting is actually this Thursday, uh, March 12th at 6:30 p.m. Couple things, sorry, around recreation. The Easter egg hunt, March 21st, that's for ages 1 through 9. Hunt starts at 11:00 a.m. We have Fifth Avenue Beach. Rain date is going to be March 29th. Summer camp signups are tomorrow for Belmar residents. Uh if there are spots still available after tomorrow, you can sign up on the 12th. You can find all information about summer camp on the website. And let's see. Oh, Dar Elementary School is having their Spongebob musical musical March 20th. Uh that's a Friday at 7:00 p.m. The matinea is that's Saturday the 21st at 2 p.m. And St. Louis High School is doing their production of Mary Poppins. That's u the 26th and 27th at 700 p.m. at the high school. And that's all I have.

Okay. Thank you, Councilman Veron. Uh just very quickly, um Council Person Kenny um has arranged an ADA meeting for us towards the end of the month. So um I've been tasked with that. So, I'll be uh attending that. I don't even think there'll be in time for the next meeting. So, there'll be more time on that once uh once we've had that first meeting. No. Okay. Um why don't we move on to the public session?

If anyone has a comment or question about a resolution on the agenda, please step forward. State your name and address first. I' just like to remind everyone we have a five limit five minute limit on on comments. So um if you'd like to comment as they just said on the resolutions please stand give your name address 284th Avenue. Um I guess first just to address your comments Councilman what resolution are you commenting on? Pretty specific. Yes, this is the the overlay zones and if those are ordinances that will come later.

All right. Or you can wait to the end which is just a general public session. Well, before is that before or after the vote? All the comments are before on the ordinances or before the vote. Thank you. Any comments on the resolutions? Okay. I don't see any. Can I have a motion to close the public session? I'll make the motion. Second. All in favor? Can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda? I'll make that motion. Second. Councilman Donovan. Yes. Council McKenna. Yes. Council member Rooney. Yes. Mayor Busesco. You take my Yes.

All right. Uh, first ordinance we have is ordinance 2062. This is an ordinance amending chapter 39 affordable housing to address the requirements of the fair housing act and uniform housing affordability controls and to comply with the burough's round four affordable housing obligations. This ordinance is open for public hearing. If anyone would like to comment on this ordinance, please step forward and remember to state your name and address. would speak about that ordinance or make comments.

That that this ordinance does not contain the the uh there's a lot of agendas. Yeah. Well, maybe you could signal to me when when that

ordinance three and four are the Overlay zones. Let's just do two overlay zones. 202602. Anyone wish to comment on that? If not. Okay. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make the motion. Second. All in favor? I. And a motion to adopt ordinance 2026 too. I'll make the motion. Second. Okay. Councilman Donovan. Yes. Councilman Kenny. Yes. Council member yes. Mayor Kusco, yes. Okay.

Next, we have ordinance 20263. This is an ordinance amending chapter 40, article 5, zoning districts, creating a route 35 overlay zone. This is open for public comment if anyone would like to speak on this ordinance. Okay. This is the Route 35 overlay zone. Anyone likes to make a comment on that? I'll try again. Uh I guess more generally I just want a clarification on again 208 4th Avenue

uh just to better understand the process. I mean we had some understood Councilman Moron's concerns around the transparency and the timing. I mean I've been following this since the December meeting December 25. Uh I think there was already a lawsuit involved in the fourth round in terms of negotiation if I'm not correct. So I just I guess from my perspective if we don't approve of the overlay zones at least in the overlay zones we maintain some control of zoning whereas if we vote no as you said your no we lose complete control of zoning. You may not have to answer to the people in overlay zones, but wherever there's a building builder remedy lawsuit, anybody that lives in that area could suffer, you know, a building four or five stories tall versus multifamilies in the old residence. Am I correct in that statement?

Yes, that's correct. If there if this settlement doesn't go through and the bur doesn't adopt all the resolutions as it's been already approved by the court then the entire burrow including the overlay zone would be exposed to builders revenue lawsuits and there's already been one lawsuit to build a fivetory four fivetory building on fourth ocean.

Yeah, there were multiple lawsuits. There was one brought by 7th Avenue which was was resolved and uh and withdrawn. There was an a challenge brought by Fair Share Housing Center which was negotiated and resolved in part through these overlay zones. And then there was the uh lawsuit that was brought by 101 uh 4th on Ocean Avenue, the Ocean Avenue budget, El Chabita. And that lawsuit after being litigated through the program was dismissed by the court as part of its order and decision conditioned on the bureau doing everything it said it was going to do in its housing health and fair share plan. So the court has dismissed that challenge by Adulcha. But if we don't approve the overlay zones, that comes right can come right back.

Everything comes back, including the burough's original obligation. The burrow, as we've discussed in the past, took a vacant land adjustment to reduce its obligation from 43 affordable units to 14. And that was creating the unmet need, which was met through the overlay zone. So if this settlement does not go through, if these if these uh if the bureau does not adopt this this evening, then the bureau is back at square one which with its 43 units,

right? So I just from someone that's been following this, there's been many posts on Facebook on the Belmore local page. If you know, if you're a resident, you should be following this. You should, you know, have an interest in it to to say you're going to vote no because those people didn't get enough notice. Well, I'm here, right? I've been following it. I'm really unhappy if we don't approve it and there's a five story or fourstory building on Ocean 4th Avenue because we didn't want multif family in I don't know the last Friday when we talked about this you made the point how many areas of Belmar don't have multif family improvement so is that really out of character no but a fourstory building on Ocean Avenue with 30 parking spaces is absolutely out of character

thank you thank you anyone I have sorryita. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Anita Buckley, First Avenue. Um, I am not on the council. Never been on the council. Have no desire to be on the council. And I'm not a lawyer. Have no desire to be a lawyer. But I believe I can do this whole presentation myself because I've sat through so much of it and I think I understand it. And I did that all on my own time. So when you say there's no transparency, that's just on you. Democracy is transparent if you look and that's the way it's made up. The two former administrations ignored their affordable housing. They kicked it to the curb. There was a letter from the lawyer that said, "You are not doing your affordable housing. I am worried." And then that last administration was stuck up against the wall with all these big buildings. So all that 35 development is on the last two administrations, former mayor Walsifer, former mayor Dar. So don't blame that on us. Now we're trying to go forward and follow the law and puts put the town in its position for the next 10 years and be the right way. And it's an overlay zone. Like we said, there's 10 years that they may or may not use it. Things may change tomorrow with the courts. I mean, for you to sit there and show up, I'm, you know, two days on the council and say you don't know what's going on. I I I can't stand that. And here, just for the sake of the fact that I am belief in affordable housing, is Mr. Bruce Springsteen when he was 25. Look at him. Long hair, ripped shirt, and look at his friends, people of color. But he would have been okay with affordable housing. He would have qualified if if this was the 70s. He would have qualified with his income if this was the 70s. And I'd be damned if this wasn't my neighbor or actually him if if it was my neighbor. And so I think

it's disgusting that this is how far we've come. Goodbye. Okay, Harry.

Harry Luben, 15th Avenue. Uh just a little of clarification of what I've learned over time and correct me if I'm wrong. Uh I could do that. Um it's not always going to be builder's remedies uh lawsuits may not be four or five or even six stories. if Trenton gets their hands on it. Uh because we don't do this. I've read articles in some of the zoning things that I get uh because I am on the zoning board, but I'm talking as a resident right now. But what I've read over the years is towns I think Milbourne where they didn't do it and all of a sudden they got 10 and 15 story buildings. Okay. So that's what I'm remembering. So you're not talking about anything that would stay within our zoning and our planning boards. You're talking builder's remedies where from what I've been told, what I've read is that the judges favor the builder and give them everything we don't want.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else?

Yes. Uh my name is Drew Fronkin. I'm on South Lake Drive. Um, I didn't come here tonight with any agenda and actually didn't even know what was on the agenda. So, uh, this is very educational for me. I don't know what's going on in this place, but it looks like they're almost paid actors with some of these props and grandstanding. I think uh, Councilman has every right to say what he said. Now, we may not agree with it. It may not be the appropriate vote, but I do believe that when you have a level of responsibility that the council has and the administration has, you have to build a culture, okay, that you're proud of. I love uh Katie's response only from the perspective of going forward she wouldn't do it the same way. Okay, I wasn't really happy with the result, but I understand that. And to the extent that there are people out there that should be monitoring, should be reading the rags, it doesn't happen. People have day jobs, some people aren't even capable of understanding some of that. Some people are and they don't have the time. I believe it's incumbent upon any good council and any good administration to make sure that their constituents are aware of things that are going to impact them. So, while I understand and I'm not making a judgment about what everybody was up against, this does happen to be a Trenton issue mostly and there have been other administrations that may not have handled things perfectly. But going forward, and even in this moment, I'd like to see the council do what Kevin just did and speak to what Katie just said, which is we're not going forward as a town going to take advantage of assuming people understand what's going on and we'll be proactive. Mayor, you did a great job prior to being mayor of being highly uh critical about transparency. And I think it's important and I'd ask

you to stand up and say again that you're for transparency and even if there was a dilemma or a situation which didn't allow that culturally I'd like to see this administration and any council going forward push for that for our township. So that's that's all I wanted to say. I'm not judging what went on. It's highly complex matter many years in the making. But to feel like one individual and maybe the no vote is not the right vote in this instance. We don't know. But I do uh commend you for at least saying that there are people out there that need better information and as a council you should work harder for that to occur. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else?

Don Griffin 817 13th Avenue. So, regards to the Route 35 project, um how many units are being proposed or agreed upon for that project? Are you talking about the GMLA project where the um the old hotel to the Waterview Pavilion? Yeah, I I think it was 189 top of my head. I have those numbers, but that's not applicable to the to the but I certainly can provide those numbers. Thomas, how many residential properties are part of that? This is not a question to answer, unfortunately, but we'll try to answer. I'm just trying to just have all the information right at our fingertips here.

I read it in the papers, so I would think that if we're about to vote on it that this for this fourth round, you're approving the number of units being built there. And I think you're misinterpreting. I'm sorry, but aren't there aren't there affordable housing units in that development? that's already passed. That all was approved as part of the third round. We're talking about an overlay district which does not include the project that you're talking about. This route 35 project is3 is not from Belmar Motor Lodge to the Riverview Pavilion.

Yes, it is. that that project was part of the afford our our affordable housing third round plan and that project was approved by by the council and by the court and it is it's moving as you can see if you've driven by it you'll see that there are that's a done deal basically that's okay so it's a done deal so the numbers are no we we should know but that's not what this ordinance is about okay if you I'm actually asking the question I'll read 35 five so that I don't ask it when I when we get to the overlay in 04. We're we're at 04 overlay right now. No, we're on 03. No, we're not.

Yes. Yeah, we are. The third order. Oh, I'm talking about 03. Sorry. Maybe we got ordinance 03. We're Yes. So with ordinance 03 route 35 189 units being built the overlay. Do we have a picture that we could show him of the overlay district? Yeah, it's in the ordinance. This is what we're talking about. The overlay district which does not include the project that's already being built. Okay. All right. So the um here you can take this. Yeah. This is the other three, right? Yeah, that's that's the that's Route 35.

The Route 35 one is between 11th and 12th Avenue. Yeah, that's the district that we're Okay. Sorry, I was unaware of that. So, it's the block with like 711 and it's not authorizing any specific project. The project you're referencing on Route 35 is what's called the Repetti Rouso project that was approved as part of the third round for 198 units. That was already approved. Yeah, I'm aware that I bought in the paper. I was just trying to Yeah, just it's two separate things. Granted, it's in the general same general vicinity, but there is a redevelopment project going on that was part of the third round. And then there's this Route 35 overlay zone, which is an ordinance which is separate and apart from that perenni project that's being built

and not the same properties. Not the same properties. Those properties are not part of the overlay because they're already part of a redevelopment project. The route 35 overlay zone is limited uh to I think three lots. Do you have that? It's uh it's four lots. It's two blocks fronting on 35 between 11th and 12th. So it's um from the north end the block the 7-Eleven is on. So like we're 7-Eleven to the car dealership on 35. That's the property that they're talking about. It's totally understandable. This is all very confusing. So, don't you know it's it's it's very understandable.

I didn't see anything about that one either, so caught me off guard. I'll I'll wait for Thank you. Any other comments on ordinance 20263? Okay. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? I. And can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 20263? I'll make a motion. Okay. Councilman Donovan, yes. Council McKini, yes. Council member, yes. Mayor, yes.

Okay. Next is ordinance 20264. This is the ordinance amending chapter 40 article 5 zoning districts creating a mixeduse overlay zone 2. This is open for public comment. Anyone want to like speak on this ordinance? Do you want to see those ones too before you? This is four. This is ordinance number four. And there's another overlay.

That's one. Thanks. All right. Now that I know that I'm talking about the right overlay zone, uh it's important to understand uh we've had several major projects in town. Uh just that Route 35 project has 189 total units. How many of those are affordable? Is it 20%. I'm going to guess 20 if you see if I'm right. And then they're making a $2 million correct uh donation to making a payment payment in

that was Yeah. So 20 units right there. 20 units of affordables 5% payment in LO for 10 units at $2 million.

Okay. So, if my math's correct, we're talking about maybe 12% of those were affordable housing. Yet, the overlay zone that we just that was just approved and the one that we're discussing right now are 20%. That was to resolve the third round. I think what um is a unique situation for the burrow is that the burrow is doing the third and fourth round so close in time. Not many very few other municipalities were in this situation. most municipalities have resolved their third round within the past you know 101 15 years. So, the fact that the burough is doing this so close in time is is why this is creating issues. But under the uh third round, which was a different law, I mean, it was still the Fair Housing Act, but it wasn't amended, the bureau was permitted to negotiate the amount of affordable units. And in order to resolve that, in order to resolve its obligation, originally these projects came in with zero affordable units. The developers didn't wouldn't build any affordable units. So, it was uh part of the negotiations to get them to agree and get to a number that fair housing would accept and the court would accept to resolve the third round declaratory judgment action. And yes, that was below 20%. Moving forward, the burough is obligated to uh for all affordable housing for all development projects over five units, the set aside will be 20%.

I want to make a point to that. We have an ordinance that actually goes beyond the affordable housing. Anyone in town who builds a unit a property that has five or more units in it will need to uh designate 20% of those as affordable housing. It doesn't matter where it is. So that's just an ordinance that we passed a number of months ago and that

so that applies everywhere in the barroom. help you understand uh whether it's round three or round four, the bureau doesn't actually interact with the fair housing folks, we hire subject matter experts or attorneys to do that. Is that correct?

Well, no. What what the way you have to look at it is it's a the way it was set up is a lawsuit and the the way we set it up is we're we're the plaintiffs. In other words, we we brought the lawsuit, but the court, the Supreme Court way back when designated the this fair share housing group as a entity to represent the defendants and the defendants being all the people in the state of New Jersey that need affordable housing. So they're not so they're a party to the action per the court's permission. So the court said to them, "Oh, fair share housing. You can go and and you know and advocate for the rights of all the people who uh will benefit by fair share housing." So they're involved in every lawsuit throughout the state, all the declaratory judgments and everything else because they're speaking for the people who need the affordable housing. So they're there. We we can't get rid of them. We can't actually we have to pay them, believe it or not. amongst all the other insults that we had to have to do during this process. So that's their role.

So I'm I'm just trying to understand who who negotiates the amount of units on behalf of the bureau, its elected representatives and its citizens who negotiates something for on our behalf.

It's a little confusing, but there is a number that is that is calculated by tables and charts and things that this court has designated tell me if I'm wrong and and they come up with this number uh the the powers that be and they said all right Delmare needs you know what 41 units and then at that point we have to say you know we said well we can't we can't fit 41 units in Delmore and that's what they call the vacant land adjustment because if we we only have so much vacant land so they go through all these calculations and they find out that we we can only accommodate I'm making this up. So, don't only do it. We can only accommodate 10 units. Okay? And then that has to be approved by fair share house. They have to look at all your calculations and and the court has to look at them all. We all have to we all have to agree that yes, that's a fair number. So, that's where we that's where we start with with the number. We don't create that number. the the uh it comes from uh the court from the the process of designating each municipality having a certain number and then uh and then we take it from there and then we negotiate on how we're going to meet that number whether it's 10 or 20 or whatever

and so those negotiations are something that council's aware of makes the public aware of I mean I'm just trying to understand why 20 is acceptable now 20% is acceptable now in these do overlay zones, but 20% wasn't something a year or so ago that we brought to a giant development that didn't take existing single single family residences and convert them into mixed use. Is there an explanation for why we didn't do a better job negotiating? It's it's it's negotiating.

This was such a long process. It was always 20%. But we had individual units that we were back and forth for years. Like how many years, guys? Like this has been going on. And I I I totally understand. It's very very confusing. But these went kind of one by one. So some got a pilot and some didn't have to do 20%. And but the law moving forward, correct? Yes.

Is that they have to be 20%. The developers would be very happy to give us 20% in the past, but what they wanted in addition to that was then, well, we can't we can't build this fivetory building that we're proposing because we can only give you, you know, 11 units in here. We'll glad to give you the 20, but we need another two floors on this building to to do that, which means now it's going to be a sevenstory building on Main Street. And, you know, we again representing the the town and what we heard from people was that, you know, we didn't want to have extreme heights on Main Street. So, we start negotiating that down, you know, like how can we get it keep it at four? How can we keep it in mind? You know, it it's a process that that goes on. It involves parking, you know, because you have, you know, the more units they have, the more parking, the more they don't want to provide the parking because, you know, then that builds it up too. Well, can't we need a parking garage? So, we need to have two levels of parking, which is going to add to the seven units that we the seven levels that we need to give you the 20% which means that now we're up to nine nine stories, you know, two. So that's that's how it goes. They'll give you anything you want. It's what what we want or don't want. And and you know, the court says we're not really here to, you know, change the character of the community. You know, that they're supposed to do that. But you know, who decides that? You know, it's in it's in the court's hand at some point. So we have to negotiate. And quite frankly, we we did not have a lot of leverage in in order to because like I said on most before, it's like negotiating with three people. You're negotiating with the developer, you're negotiating with cashier housing, and you're negotiating with the court.

Yes. Interest. It would seem that a uh an additional story with some affordable units built in there would be fine next to a 10story existing building. And by the way, I mean that motor lodge property there, there's no residences next to it. Stop throwing shade on anyone. Yeah, but do you want it on the corner of 8th Avenue in Main Street? That's No, that's that's not what I was talking to talking to because there are no 10-story buildings on Main Street. There's fours. But there's a 10story building right next to directly across from the Belmar Motor Lodge and there are no residences next to this new project. So, why not go up that extra floor and take some extra ones?

You know, hindsight is is 2020, but we're involved in negotiation. As Councilwoman Kenny said, this this took a long time going back and forth. And each of these projects was an individual negotiation process. Every one of them back and forth. That project actually they proposed at one point two towers of 21 stories. I'm not lying. That was it. They said, "You know what? We'll give you that." And we're like, "Well, you know, come on. You know, give us a break." Good negotiators. They start at 21 because they want to end. They didn't start at 21. They started at like eight, but then they, you know, we started we start at 25% affordable housing. They get to 20.

That's that's negotiations. But getting back to the transparency, I mean, just being a resident, reading the paper, reading the minutes, trying to keep my ear, you know, I'm just a dad. I don't have time to to really a lot of time to to dedicate to this. When was the official notice first made to the bureau or the public about the overlay zone between 11th and 16th between railroad and 71 for 04?

We we we answered that question I think already. That was done at the very end of the at the end end of the process when we had interveners come on August 31st and we had to match uh developers who wanted to come in and give us uh affordable housing on like Ocean Avenue and then we had to come up with an alternative to do that. As far as the specific ordinance, it was first introduced on February 27th on the uh you know on the agenda and the notice of the introduction was published and the and the map and the site plan were available in August. No,

no, no, no. The map and the site plan were probably first available as part of the housing element fair share plan. I think probably in sometime in February I don't have a specific date. It was the 27th was when I mean not site plan, I'm sorry, the the uh the attachment with the mapping out the overlay. So there's no site plan. Well, no. In August and you and the the folks that are the the burrow the burrow's representatives at affordable housing, they're aware of what this means to the residents that live in that in that community.

There was no settlement in all this. They received challenges. The settlement was not finalized really accepted by the court until February. the judge uh we had multiple sessions with the judge through December. I think it was finally wrapped up with a program judge in December 31st. We didn't reach agreement with Fair Share Housing until sometime in January. Look, I'll an analogy. You're served with papers for a divorce. You're not divorced, but you know about it. So my question is why did the burrow not reach out to the residents in August when they knew what the impact of this was going to be on both the businesses and the single family residences in that area.

Well, two things I want to make it clear. Our plan was made before August and there were there was a deadline of August 31st for people to object. If no one had objected, we don't have a we don't have a plan.

No, we had a plan. We had our fourth round plan all written up without the overlays on and we were ready to we presented it to the court. Okay. And the rules that the state applied said if you're going to object to any municipality's fourth round plan, you have to do it by August 31st. So now we have a developer from Fourth in Ocean Avenue who says I object. Okay. So now we're basically our plan is now like you know out of the water because now the court's like well you know now you have an objector. Now let's see what's what's going to happen. So now the objector is saying well I can provide I don't know how many units it was six units or whatever. If you adopt my plan, you know, I can I can give the town six affordable housing units right now. But we have to build a five-story building on Ocean Avenue with ground level parking. Okay? And quite frankly, that was not acceptable to to the council. So, we have to come up with a plan B. And the plan B is the overlay zone. That's the plan B. And then it took time to negotiate that. It's not like we just come out and said this is the this is it and and we can present that to the burrow and present it to the people. We can't because we don't even know if that's going to be accepted. So we have to negotiate that. And at some point they said yes. And that was very very recently that they that they said we that they approved of that. So we didn't even know that they were going to approve of of the overlay zone until the court said, "Okay, we approve it." And as a result of that, we are conditionally approved. I'll use the word conditionally, but and we need to pass these ordinances tonight. So the court will say, "You've done everything you need to do." The

court's not going to approve the plan unless we include the overlays on them. So that's that's really the way it works. It's not I mean, it's not the responsibility of Fourth Avenue to provide the affordable housing units for for the town. It's not. No, it's not. It's not the responsibility and let terrorists, but they wanted to and it's not the responsibility of, you know, 18th A or Fifth A or six. It's all of us.

But you got to remember though the the zoning for Ocean Avenue does not permit the that level of building. So what they wanted to do is they wanted to become part of the process so that they could get in on the on the zoning for affordable housing. In other words, they can negotiate with the court and say, "This is what we want to do." and the court would turn around and say, "You know what? Yes." They would order the town then at that point to change our zoning so that we could meet what the builder wants to do on Ocean Avenue. That's the way it works. All right? The zoning doesn't permit it, but if you can get in as a developer into the affordable housing and convince the court, then the court will order the municipality will order us to pass an ordinance that says, "You know what? on Ocean area and you're going to permit a five-story building with parking on the bottom. And that's what we didn't want. We didn't want to be ordered to do that. So, we came up with what many uh municipalities have used, and that's an overlay zone. And as I explained before, the overlay zone is an option. And it really only will come into effect if the homeowners in those areas decide they're going to sell their properties or if one owner owns a massive piece of property, then then, you know, a purchaser might consider using the overlay zone. But if for the next 10 years if the property is not sold, then there's there's no way that anybody can can, you know, use the overlay zone as their form of zoning. And I'm going to have to

So just moving on to five minutes. You you I I haven't spoke for 5 minutes, but uh you said it several times in the last meeting that you chose the path of least resistance, and I really want to know why that path of least resistance didn't land on your block or any of the other council people's blocks. I I I mean, we we left those things up to our planners. You know, they they know the town. They know.

But you never you never came to us. You knew. You said it was a draft. I didn't know. but you never came and you never asked us what we felt. And so with the burough owning a large chunk of property on in that overlay zone, can the burrow promise us that they will not sell that to a developer in the next 10 years? I can't promise anything because I'm not going to be here in the next 10 years. That's that's all I need to hear. Any other comments? A motion to close the public hearing. I'll make the motion. All in favor? I

can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 20264? I'll make that motion. Second. Councilman Donovan, yes. Council McKenna, yes. Council member Rooney, no. Mayor Musco, yes. Okay. Next, we have ordinance 20265. This is an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap. We have a motion to offer this ordinance for first reading and introduction. I'll make a motion. Second. Councilman Donovan, yes. Council McKini, yes. Council member yes. Mayor Busco,

yes.

And now we're on to the regular public session. If anyone has any comments, please step forward and remember to state your name and address. making 14th Avenue. Um, first I want to say that I think the barrel guys and girls in the DPW did an outstanding job plowing considering we had two buttkicking snowstorms one way after another. So you need to be commended for the long hours long long hours that they worked through the night. So, you know, thank you for being out there. The building that's on the building that's on 12th Avenue and Main Street. Can we uh knock it down and pave it and make it a paid parking lot just like you have meters that or not meters, but you have the little things up at the beachfront so that when you park, you know, you have to pay. Is there any way we could do that with that building? Uh at the present time we are we're looking at uh eventually eventually it will be it will be knocked down but we cannot put anything on that property because that property is contaminated.

So it has to stay the way it is for the time being. We're actively uh moving towards that. You should hear something within the next what is today the probably within the next like month and a half whatever we'll have more to say about that.

Oh okay. Um, I might be bouncing around, but when it comes to like all these buildings that are going up and everybody's griping about the affordable housing, I personally happen to have a friend that lives in Wall Township in in an affordable housing development. It's a very small percent of that development is affordable housing. She she has to pay rent. She has to pay utilities. They can knock on her door at any time, any month, and knock on the door and say, "I want to see the status of this apartment. You're in affordable housing. You need to keep it up." So, that's something I don't think people are aware of that I'm not for or against. I'm just being kind of neutral, giving information that I know when it comes to affordable housing. They're not getting these apartments for free. They're not getting them for free at all. they have to pay a percent of

that was always the case. I think it it's statutory that you know there are designation of of different levels low income low low income and they all all have to pay a rent. I don't know what the calculation is or how it's done but that is the the rules of the of the state. So I think some I think some people are under the assumption that oh they're going to affordable housing they're going to get it for free. They don't get it for free. They have to pay. Free housing is called free housing. Affordable housing is affordable.

Um, let me put the notes here. Okay. I brought this up before. Um, and I've done everything I could. On the east side of my property, there's the Westport town houses. So, they're on the east on the west on the east side and they're on the south side of me. They have these trees and I've gone through this constantly. I have contacted Bob Brennan that's a rep of the development area and said to him there something's got to be done with those the tops of the trees because when the wind blows and this I contacted Jersey Central a couple years ago saying my lights are flickering when the wind's blowing. They said it's not your power lines, it's those trees are coming up and hitting the wires and if they don't get trimmed back as a firefighter, you know, wires can come off a house and a house can catch on fire. I have contacted Bob Ren multiple times. He sent me a picture saying, "Oh, look, the trees are three feet from your wires." I said, "When the wind's not blowing." Now, we had two windy snow ice storms. Those trees had a lot of ice on them and did a lot of bending. I said to him, I will pay out of my pocket just to get the tops of those trees below my wires and no cost to them. They're not getting back to me. What do I do now? I want to prevent my house from catching on fire.

I would send him a letter. This is not legal advice, but you said you told him. I assume I've got all the text messages to him and from I would I would send him a certified letter saying what you want done and leave it at that. See what happens cuz I've got that's not legal advice. That's just my advice as a uninformed mayor. do that. The Route 35 is going to have 189 units. Said 198. Oh,

198. Okay. And that's about 20 units are affordable. What about the Sixth Avenue and Main Street project that's going to be going on? The one the one by Robin Smith. Yes. That was prior to our um that was all approved prior to our coming in. I don't think that has any affordables in it. has no 14 town homes if I remember correctly. Really? Yeah. And 8th Avenue in Maine. Are they doing are they going to do something with that? I don't know what the status is that they have to, but that's I believe they will be doing they put in plans. Yeah. The 8th Avenue main project is going through a planning board review. Okay.

Through the engineer and the planner and then it'll be going before the planning board sometime in the next few months. Okay. Thank you. So, I just want to say thanks for giving me the tip of sending them a certified letter. I got a price. I'm I'm willing to pay for this out of my pocket. I'm not even asking them for anything. Send the letter. That's what I Okay, thank you. Any other comments? Please don't be shy.

I'm going to move. There you go. Five minutes. I gota pretty soon I'm gonna have people line up. First I wanted to say is this one.

Uh Dine and Discover was phenomenal. We had the best weather I can ever remember. Um I was so happy about that and I think everyone was really enjoying. Um the only moment of contention I had were having to deal with the shuttles. Um, I know that there were only a couple of them, but um, I was with an elderly resident that day and we were stuck at Flyables for one hour. There were three shuttles that came by. Each one was busy. I said, "Can I get her on?" And they were like, "Nope, we're full." And I'm like, you know, I was ready to call an Uber to get her home. It was just really sad. So, I just thought maybe in the future we could somehow make accommodations for mobility issues, elderly, something like that, but nobody was getting up. Uh, second thing, um, With so many construction sites being taken place throughout our entire town, sidewalks and streets are really in constant disarray. And I know that that's going to be going on for a while. But do we have a time schedule? Because I know at some point we were talking different streets that were going to be paved. My street is like a hot mess. But um and sidewalks are just, you know, because of all the construction going on. So, I don't know if there's maybe a timet or something that could be letting residents know just kind

I think we're going to have an update soon from I know Fifth Avenue is going to be done in the spring because it's a it's horrendous because of all the digging that was done. Next meeting next meeting project update. The next meeting the the engineer will be here with a project update. He's more in tune as to what the paving schedule will be like. It's not just paving though. It'll be, you know, upgrading the lines, sewer lines or reigning them, water lines and whatever. So, he'll give us the details on that.

Sidewalks, just so you know, sidewalks are technically on the homeowner. So, one of the things I was actually brought up with the EDA and we tried to get going again was that sidewalk initiative, which was something I think happened in 2015 or 16. It was a while ago where residents could work with the town to get a better price on replacing their own sidewalks, but it's on your dime. Do you know what I mean? So, whether you work it out through your taxes or something, it will I have the original list that came out because my name was on there and we made sure home order. And you're right, that is a project and maybe we'll we'll talk with the ADA at the next meeting about somehow seeing if we can resurrect that project because you're right. There are a lot of them.

I I tore two tendons in my foot last summer

because of a wonderful sidewalk. But anyway, all right. Last thing is um fire safety in town. Um there was a hazmat incident that took place in a neighborhood and uh I was just wondering what the protocol might be. I checked the website under the fire department to kind of see, you know, what do you do if something something is going on in your neighborhood, do you just I I don't think we need 5 million calls going to the fire department, but if something is going on and there's seven vehicles in front of your house, including a hazmat machine, I mean hazmat vehicle and so on, why aren't we notified? So, I didn't know what the the proper one was. So, I' I've spoken to other people about it. Um, we just had wanted to be notified just to let us know what was going on. And uh hopefully that

she I would imagine they could call police department, they would know. This was specifically an incident where there was a leak leaks on propane tanks and they and they had to um basically open them up and and you know wipe them up in a in a safe manner. They had to Yeah. That was Yeah, that was on 11th. That would be my starting point. Starting point is to to do that. As I said to you, if it was a if it was a hazardous matter, you would have been evacuated because that's what happened on Fifth Avenue during the day when they they hit an un unmarked gas line, which is what I thought it was. Yeah, that's what I thought it was.

I understand. Yeah, because there's so many new buildings taking, you know, and there were tanks that were out right outside and so, you know, we didn't know what was going on. I mean, we do have the notification system, but by the time we get somebody on the phone, hey, can you put this out and get it out? Yeah, because I was there for two hours. I was a police officer there. I just watched pictures. So, all right. Thank you. Any other comments? Hi, Maria Rondaro, 1246 Pine Treeway.

Did you say could you say Maria Rondaro 1246 Pine Treeway? Great to see everyone. Um I just wanted to make you aware that the Belmar's um library the trustee meeting is March 16th at 6 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend. The strategic um committee will be presenting as well. Um also we have wonderful living history with Juliet Low um from the library uh performing t at Taylor Pavilion. Um it was fantastic. If you haven't gone to one of these living history uh presentations, please take advantage of them. Uh the next one we have is Bessie Coleman American Pilot and that's this Saturday at noon at the Taylor Pavilion. That's going to be wonderful. And then March 19th is our soda bread contest. So that it's closed for the white traditional bread, but if you still have a good brown bread recipe, please bring it in. Um we we'd love to hear you. contact Louis at the library. Um we'll get you set up. It's always a great event. The Darcy um School of Music performs. Um it'll it will be fantastic. So, we hope to see you there. Please register uh online or call the library and they can help you. Uh finally, I just wanted to say thank you so much um to the mayor and council and the administration for the integrity and the hard work that you put in to finalizing this fourth round. This third round was a beast. And I can say this not being on the council anymore. It royally sucked for every single one of us. It was awful. We came in thinking we were going to fight over development because there were all these projects being said that were going to happen. And then we were told we didn't have a life to stand on. They're happening because it's been neglected for 15 years. And we were up against a deadline. So, thank you. Thank you. It

really sucked. It was awful. And as someone who is just a mom, just a social worker who wanted to represent our town, the amount of crap that we have to deal with because of what the prior administrations did not was overwhelming. Overwhelming. And so, I thank you all for being up there having the courage to serve. and I thank you for finalizing this fourth round so no other administration has to put up with what we had to any other comments on that

I want people to start timing there when you know the person is finishing walking up we must stay 20 minutes to the council meeting just by waiting people come cla 18th and be um the fourth round gives us 10 years, right? Yes. Yes. 10 years. Can we have a fiveyear reprieve like at least that we don't mention it? No guarantee. Okay. Last but not least, with March being designated as women's history month, I'm quite confident that three women sitting up on the deis, this woman sitting over here will continue to keep Belmar's history going. Thank you.

I got up before she left. Yeah. D line 14th Avenue in Belmont. What is the status on the uh sign out in Highway 35 in the marina. It hasn't been working in a few months. We're getting a new one. It's dead as you know. It's shot. Okay. Just wanted to know. All right. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Can I have a motion to close the public session and adjourn? I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I