Planning Board - Regular Meeting

What? [laughter] Breakfast. Hey, great.

Good evening everyone. We're calling the January 8th, 2026 meeting of the Hillsdale Burough Planning and [clears throat] Land use to order. We'll begin with the open public meeting statement read by our deputy secretary Tanya followed by the pledge of allegiance. This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act. The notice of this meeting was published in two newspapers according to law and time and place of this meeting have been hosted in a prominent location in Burough ball. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Tanya. And when you're ready, we'll have our first roll call of the 2020. So, now we have to turn them in another.

Okay. Sorry, I apologize. You're correct. Okay. So, in reversing that, we are very very happy to swear rewear in two of our long-term members here. And uh first, we'll bring down Scott Raymond, class two, term expiring. 2028 together. I don't do it. You want to do them together? I don't know if that's okay. Is that okay? If you'd like to, we can. Just like joining up in the military. I'll state your name. Okay, that's fine. I just Now, this is going to be a Three Stooges sketch because everybody's got to raise their right hand on the Bible. Take your hand out. Move your hand out. They're good friends. So, okay,

that'll be sweet. And you're going to take the picture. State your name. We're going to get a video of this for their wonderful lives. Okay. So, when I when I say class, so you're going to say class four and you're going to say class two, right? Gotcha. Okay. So, just remember when I say class, fill in the fill in the blanks. You guys get to fill in the blanks. Okay. Okay. Right hand left hand on the right hand in the air. Come on. Left hand on the Bible. Right hand in the air. See, listen. Take your hat off. Put your hand up. [laughter] Okay. I state your name. I, Scott Raymond, do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. support the Constitution of State of New Jersey.

And that I will bear true faith and allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same. And to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of the planning board of the office of the planning board class class two you did it well they're smart

to the three-year term ending December 31st 2028 and 20ou and for ed December 31st 2029 let's say that again Okay. To the three-year term. To the three-year term. And yours is a four-year term. To a four-year term. Ending December 31st, 2028. And December uh ending December 20. And my glasses. We spoke too soon. December 28th. No, December 31st. 2028. And 2029. So, December 31st, 2029. According to the best of my ability. According to the best of my ability. So, help me God. So, help me.

We wrapped it up. We had a tough time, [applause and cheering] gentlemen. Congratulations. Glad to have you back on board. And now I need your signatures. Very good. Scott, right there. And while they're finishing, I just want to take a second to say these are probably two of the most dedicated men to ever serve this town. Ed, he brought it up. The first time that Ed praised me for something, I actually saved what he wrote because it meant so much to me that he thought I did a good job on something. And there's no one that has more heart and passion for service than Scott. We're very lucky to have you. Thank you for all the time you put into this. Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Yeah, sure. And we also welcome our new leaison, Mr. Kleti. We're thrilled to have you. I know everything you do you take very seriously and you always have the best interest of the boards you're representing. So we're really happy to have you here as well. Thank you. Okay. Now if I can follow the order we will have our roll call of 2026. Miss Kates here. Mr. Rearen here. Mr. Raymond I'm sorry here Mr. Alter here Mr. Freriedman

here Mr. Gre Dr. Weinberg here Mr. here. Council Leon Kleti here. Mayor Shinfield here. Thank you, Tanya. At this time, we'll open the meeting to the public. And this is for any items or issues other than those listed on the agenda or that may come before the board on another evening. Seeing none, I'll close the meeting to the public. We'll move on to reorganization by electing our new planning board member officers. We start with nomination and election of chairperson. I nominate Meredith Gates. Second. Second.

Sorry. Who was first on this? Was first. Okay. Okay. I'll take Okay, Miss Kates, I'm gonna abstain. Mr. Rearen. Yes. Mr. Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Mr. Friedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. Hip. Uh, yes. Council Analleti. Yes. Mayor Sh. Yes.

Thanks. Passed. Thank you everyone. I appreciate it. [laughter] Serve you well. And we'll move on to election of vice chairperson. I nominate Steven Rordon. Second. Second. Third. [laughter] Oh boy. I'll keep going. Let's just do it right down the side. Uh, Mr. Rearen, I'll give myself a yes. [laughter] Okay. [gasps] Mr. Raymond, yes. Mr. Alter, yes. Mr. Freriedman, yes. Dr. Weinberg, yes. Mr. Hip, yes. Council Lei, yes. Mayor Shin, an emphatic, yes. Thank you. Motion's passed. Thank you everybody. I enjoyed this.

Yeah. Thanks. Thank you so much. And election of secretary for the board. Nominate Scott. Second. Third. [laughter] Chairwoman Kates. Yes. Vice Chair Rearen. Yes. Mr. Raymond. Of course. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freriedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. Hip. Yes. Council Lei. Yes. Mayor Shanku. Absolutely. Motion's passed. I thank everyone for their comments.

Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Stephen. We're fortunate to have you. We're going to move on to invoices. We're going to start with CSG law. Once we get to Christ detail, I just want to update the board a little bit on why we have so many invoices and what we've been working on in order to make the process clearer moving forward in terms of Chris's invoices and being paid. So, we'll start with CSG law. There's three invoices for a total of $1,259. Motion approve. Second. Did you get that? Mhm. Chairwoman Kates? Yes. Vice Chair Reen? Yes. Secretary Raymond? Yes. Mr. Alter? Yes. Mr. Freriedman? Yes. Dr. Weinberg?

Yes. Mr. Hip? Yes. Council on Kleti? Yes. Mayor Shinfield? Yes. Motion's passed. Thank you. Moving on to one bill for Burgess Associates 48051 $1,080. Motion approved. Second. Give me one moment, please. [snorts] Okay. I'm [clears throat] sorry. Secretary Raymond and Dr. Wybert. Yes. Okay. Chairwoman. Yes. Vice Chair Reen? Yes. Secretary Raymond? Yes. Mr. Alter? Yes. Mr. Freriedman? Yes. Mr. Hip, yes. Council Lean Ki, yes. Mayor Shyu,

yes. Motion's passed. Thank you. So, [clears throat] moving on to Chris. Um, so basically, we've been working on a clearer way to make sure Chris is paid for what he's doing, that the bills are coming. Yes. This other one, did I miss one? Sorry. Thank you. We Yeah, I mean, we can go in any order, but yes, let's do the court reporter. Thank you, Mr. Hip. So, we have a bill from a court reporter and that was because of uh let's say mechanical failure on the part of our equipment and we needed a transcript. So, we are paying this court reporter. Do you want to remind us what hearing that was?

I believe it was 50 colonial. I don't have this written down in front of me. It was a fence and it was on the same night as the Oh, the as the self storage. Yes, it was the same as [clears throat] self storage. So, we were lucky to have Yeah. Yes. Yes. So that's the only reason why we happen to have had a court reporter here. Uh I believe it's 50 clients. And hopefully our technology is caught up so we won't have that problem again. Thank you. Are there any questions or do I have a motion? Um I'm seeing their invoice. Am I missing one because I see $1,024 and we're looking at a total of $1805. Am I seeing that correct?

1805. Did I write it down wrong? Oh, it say Yeah, it says 145 and then total 1805. Yeah, it's just take off. But even the 1405 doesn't make sense if it's I'm sorry. It's a take off. No, no, no, no, no. Here says,24. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh, I see. I didn't I mean she wants a tip. I get it. No, it's 124. Okay, then then we'll just Okay. So, we'll make note that that bill payment will be Thank you, Stephen. 124. Why do I have that? Even better. Okay. [snorts] So, we need a [clears throat] motion to approve it. Motion. Thank you, Steve. Second. Second.

Dr. Ward. Okay. Chairwoman Mates. Yes. Vice Chair Reen? Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freriedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. Hip. Yes. Council Zetti. Yes. Mayor Shinberg. Yes, motion

has passed. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to take Chris's in stages here, but I first want to explain that um bill bill billing has changed over the past few years. It's changed significantly with different procedures and different um with different bur administrators. So, Chris obviously does different jobs for the board. Most of your payment, you'd say, come out comes out of escrow. That's correct. Sometimes Chris needed to serve us in a way that it's not appropriate to bill an applicant such as reviewing a resolution and what was happening is that there wasn't necessarily funding for that on the burl's end that wasn't being funded in an account in some way. So we spent many weeks sort of explaining and and Tanya was very helpful rectifying Mark wrote a new contract and helped clear that up. So now there is an allocated fund for 2026 for work that Chris needs to do for us that's non-escrow and it'll be labeled as non-escrow so you'll know what it is. Um but we still Chris still had many outstanding bills from this year which is where we're getting them tonight. Some escrow Chris, right? And some non-escrow.

Yeah, you can tell by the numbers. Yeah. Right. So on top of that um our Chris's payment from the this board through escrow even ends with the resolution. Correct Tanya? I'm sorry that once the resolution is signed this board the escro no longer comes from this this board would no longer approve of that payment. So Chris at that point has has some work to do sometimes when an application is finished like checking over a deed. So that will be labeled escro and that will go on to the construction department. Tanya will send that on to the construction department. So we are you we basically cover you through the resolution. Correct. Do you want to add anything

after that? Then it goes over to the other side. Right. So you're clear what bills go to us and how to send it and how to submit. Tanya, everything seems to be working at this point. I I don't hasn't happened yet. Yeah. But there's clarity about what to do. Yes. So once I get the resolution, the final invoice from you for the resolution and once all of that's done, that gets paid and then any invoice that comes in after that is going to be sent to me and I give it to construction or you send it directly to construction. I'll ask I'll ask u Okay. So basically we're not getting the invoices that you send to construction. This is only Yeah, we wanted to clear it.

That's going to make it a lot easier for us. So Chris, tonight there may be a few questions just because we have so much for the board to look through. So I don't know if we want to take this in batches or if just people want to look through what's there and ask a question about any bill that's there and then we can approve them al together. Whatever you recommend.

Well, there's a lot of bills here. So I my concern was why are there so many bills and why are they so old? Uh Merit just cleared that up. But as far as going through each individual, uh, there's got to be 20 pages here. So, I think the best thing to do if you've already approved or looked at, I think, um, I I don't have I don't think anybody has the time to go through every bill and invoice uh, that's been presented here. I had a lot of questions, but I guess you cleared that up, Meredith. That satisfied with what you say. I have one question, Chris. when it says general and we're looking through and it says prepare and attend joint planning board meeting. Is that non-escrow?

Okay. And that was cleared with David Young that because I thought if you attend

you can't charge escrow for just being here. Yeah. Because that you're it's not just a hearing that you're hearing. Okay. That's why I wanted to funds were put aside to pay these, right? And um Cassali gave me these. I guess he had a conversation with you, you know, approved them. They the funds are there and now we just had the board group it so they can actually be paid.

Yeah. I just wanted the board to hear that. So that's why they're separate though. Take your time to look through and see if there's any questions. And this is just two 2025s. Chris, correct? Correct. Okay. So, he is he will be totally up to date as of tonight. Nothing else though.

Well, he's showing up tonight. He's got to get paid for that. Right. But he'll submit for this, you know, appears that other than two, everything else is escrow, right? Yep. All right. My motion is to approve the invoices as submitted. Okay. So, motion to approve Christ's invoices for a total of $16,710. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Reen. Pay the man. Pay the man. Chairwoman Keates. Yes. Vice Chair Rearen. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Absolutely. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freriedman. Yes.

Dr. [clears throat] Wiper. Yes. Mr. Hip. Yes. Council Lee Zank. Yes. Mayor Shiner. Yes. Thank you. Motion's passed. Now we may Now he may take us out for say the bartender's going to thank you [laughter] next year. We've been getting a little better if I said no. Thanks Chris. You've been patient and and helpful in in making the process work on all ends. So thank you for that. Enjoy the Porsche. Okay, [laughter] moving on to our resolution. We actually need to adopt a resolution for our calendar and our meeting dates. Hopefully everybody got a chance to look at over the last meeting. So, I need a motion to approve um our calendar.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Thank you. Chairman Leates. Yes. Vice Chair Rearen. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freiedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. Hip. Yes. Council Leon Kleti. Yes. Mayor Shanker. Yes. Motions passed. I'd just like to know according to the OCD, how many have already put it into their calendars for the year? Of course. There it is. Papers anymore. Okay.

We now um are happy to reappoint our professionals. So, we have our resolutions for professionals for 2026. First, our board attorney, CSG Law, and we thank Mico for representing us tonight. Do I have You can uh yeah I think you need to actually name oh yes should we appoint Mark by name is the question yeah okay so we have a resolution and the motion would be to appoint Mark Leeman as our planning board attorney with the firm CSG law motion second

thank you I'm sorry seconded Chairwoman Keates. Yes. Vice Chair Reen. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. [snorts] Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freriedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. [clears throat] Hip. Yes. Council Lee Zancetti. Yes. Mayor Shanko. Yes. Motion's passed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And next resolution is to uh to appoint Chris Diel CPL PA our board engineer 2026. Motion approved. Second. Chair Mates. Yes.

Vice Chair Weirden. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mr. Freriedman. Yes. Dr. Weinberg. Yes. Mr. Hip. Yes. Council Lady Zetti. Yes. Mayor Shank. Yes. Motion's passed. excitement. [clears throat] Are you brave enough to tell us how many years it's been? What was your first 45 years in Hillsdale? We should have known this before we voted. Come on. Wow. Congratulations. No one knows every manhole cover, every every street, every store. Would you like to know how old I'm going to be in March? [laughter] Five years. Yeah. Well, he made it to this moment just to watch you.

It is. Make it to see you. It's Chris's reign and my age are the same. [laughter] Wow, that's bitter. Makes you feel old, though. And he's been doing your Stephen, you've been at your job what, 25 years. What's You've been at your job 25 years. Yeah. You see there? Don't Don't be I'm still skiing expert slopes. That's right. at a point double diamond as well as you. Um, okay. Moving on to our board planner, Burgess Associates. So, we're um have a motion to approve Tom Barren as the board planner for 2026. Motion to Ed. Go ahead.

Can't wait for Tom there. Ed. Okay. Ed Scott. Second. Chair Mates. Yes. Vice Chair Reen. Yes. Secretary Raymond, yes. Mr. Alter, yes. Mr. Freriedman, yes. Dr. Lambert, yes. Mr. Hit, yes. Council Lee Zanki, yes. Mayor Shanker, yes. Motion's passed.

Thank you, Tanya. Uh before we approve the meeting minutes, Tanya, I think you wanted to uh uh yes, they are one the November 13th is regular open minutes and then the dece there's December 11th. Both of them are December 11th, one's open, one's closed and no one

and then on December 11th open on page two, Mr. Mr. Alter voted yes, not no. And on page five, Mr. Creek's name is spelled incorrectly. And that's the only changes. Okay. So, we'll do these in two groups. So, we'll take uh when you're ready, a motion to approve the open meeting minutes with those two corrections, the change of the spelling of the name and the vote. Do we have to approve each one of the minutes separately or together?

We should. Yes. So, we'll start with November 13th and Secretary Raymond. Oh, yeah. Thanks. And Dr. Weinberg and um obviously council leazison were both were all not at the meeting. [snorts] Okay. So, November 13 1st. Do I have a motion? Motion. Mr. Weird. Second. Mr. Freeman. Thank you. Chairman Mates. Yes. Vice Chair Veren, yes. Mr. Alter, yes. Mr. Freriedman, yes. Mr. Hip, yes. Mayor Shinfield, yes.

Thank you. Motion's passed. Moving on to de December 11th open. Okay, December 11th open. We have Mr. Freriedman, Dr. Weinberg, Mr. Mr. Hip and council leazison who are all not present at this meeting. Motion Mr. Second Mr. R. Chair Mates. Yes. Vice Chair Rearen. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. Mayor Shinfield. Yes.

Motion's passed. Okay. Thank you. And then we have the closed minutes from the same date, December 11th. We also have Mr. Freriedman, Dr. Weinberg, Mr. Hip, and council on Clet Avenue at Avenue from the 11th. You're saying yes. Right. These are closed. Okay. Because there's also closed for the 19th. There's closed for the 19th. We didn't meet the We didn't meet on the 19th. That's a type. Sorry. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. I didn't even do minutes for Okay. Thank you. So this is uh December 11th closed. Yeah. Sorry, that was my fault. Motion second.

And that was Vice Chair Reen and Secretary Raymond. Right. Yes. Chairwoman Case. Yes. Vice Chair Rean. Yes. Secretary Raymond. Yes. Mr. Alter. Yes. And Mayor Shine? Yes. Motion's passed. Thank you. Thank you. And we have an announcement about our hearing that was scheduled for this evening. Yes. So PZ-1239 report is going to be adjourned to January 27th, 2026 with no further notice being published or mailed.

Can you hear me now? for this [laughter] DZ-11-25 which is block 203 lot 12 39 Sierra Court is being adjourned to January 27th 2026 with no further notice being mailed or published

thank you and that was due to their need when their professionals were able to were not able to be here tonight so they asked for that rescheduling all right so discussion items um Chris will be has prepared our annual review and we will discuss that in February. I just want the board to be aware that on February 12th we're going to hear fair share housing. We have a fair share housing affordable housing hearing. Um so that's important night for they're all important but for the board to be here on the 12th. Um and we have a very busy night on the 27th. Now we have a concept review which shouldn't be long and two hearings right Tanya? [snorts] Yes, two hearings. Um,

one of them is a D. Uh, is well, we have the CR court again, right? So that's So we can we'll put that at the end. We have 39 CR court. That's the Darian. We have a concept review. Yeah. Can we just put that at the end so they can I'll put it end 39 at that was nice. Thank you, M. You're welcome. Do you have And sorry. Oh, sorry. We have a concept review for 37 Pasc Road. And then we have uh 314 St. Mary Street, which I believe is a fence. Mhm. Fair share housing. And uh No, no, that's fair housing. The 12th. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, we only have fair share housing on the 12th. Um, mayor, do you have any items you want to No, I'm just glad, you know, this is this is a very efficient and effective board and I'm really glad I you know, I have the opportunity to put somebody in here to sit in mystead and I really like being here. So, I think you and it has to do with everybody in here. Um, and I appreciate everything you guys are doing. Um, great job, guys. I'm proud to be part of it. Thank you. Thank you, Shinfield. Um, Mr. Kleti, you know, you don't have to obviously say anything, but we uh we always appreciate when our liaison sort of updates the council on, you know, the board or anything you think is relevant to the board. So,

we appreciate that. Appreciate the warm welcome and I look forward to working with all of you. Yeah. Thank you so much. And yeah, I'm sorry. It is the 27th. I got confused when you said that. This is this is what was noted. It's but the mayor's letter said February said February 12th and we're not going to be able to get the it out all in 10 days for the 27th. Okay. What didn't your letter Didn't your email said the 12th the hearing? I believe it did. Everything said the 12. I don't I don't I will double check. Everything I saw said the 12th. Okay. Let me let me check recheck. I just Yeah. Mark when Mark responded to us, he wanted to make sure obviously that we had

that was the date I had been saving open. Just give me a second. That's okay. I can check this because I'm pretty sure if you're right, that's what he sent and that's what was noticed. And um

it says on this on this version too, the 12. Well, I mean, we can follow up with this. No, it's a 27th. January 27th. This is from Darlene. That's This is what This is what she said. So, there's two. So, vote ordinance consistency review. Yeah. If you want to know, that's what that's what came from the attorneys. What? We don't need two nights, though. Why would we need two nights? I don't know. That's what the attorneys

Okay. We will get clarity on this and we'll let you guys know either way you're hearing it. But I don't think we need two nights. I think we have to just ask Mark, you know, why there's two nights scheduled for it and when we have the whole night of of February 12th to hear it. So we'll get clarity on that. Yeah. Okay. That's it on Maya. Anyone else? Okay. Do I have a motion to adjourn? The next hearing will be Sorry. Are you going to call to the public again? Uh I probably should. Thank you for reminding me. That's never on the agenda. At this time, I'll open the meeting to the public. Are there any issues any for the board? Chris. Chris. Sorry.

Should I put on the uh uh what I what I discussed with you about the lighting for the building? Should I do that as public or No, you saw this. I told you that's okay. Oh, you weren't kidding. I thought he was joking around with you. No, [laughter] he can see the the the new development. The light. It's some It's some Yeah. something that you would have to recuse yourself from the board and then have to come to us. I'm sorry. I thought he was joking around.

No. Okay. Okay. So, there's nothing you would like to share with the board from as a resident. Okay. Seeing none, I'll close the meeting to the public. Our next public hearing is Tuesday, January 26th. Seems to be a packed one. 27th, sorry. 2026, 7:30 p.m. for a whole council chambers. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion. Y second. Okay, Dr. Weinberg. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Happy New Year.