Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Let me just face the mouth. Okay, go ahead.

That is true. It's your meeting. Ken starting.

I'd like to call to order January 12th planning board meeting which is a reorganization meeting and a regular meeting. Time is 6:31. Adequate notice has been given in accordance with the sunshine law. notice was published on December 12th in the Star Ledger, one of the official newspapers for the township of Springfield for the year 2025 and posted in the annex building on December 12th, 2025. Let's all rise for a flag salute to the flag of the United States of America

to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. Okay, I tried to turn you to the flag. Okay, I'm going to take a roll call, but before I do that, I just want to welcome our new members, Kevin Ferraro, Kenneth Korn. And here we go. Mayor Harris Wower, present. Uh, Deputy Mayor Alex Kaiser, Mr. David Barnett, former mayor. Mr. Aaron

Laugher Mr. Richard Cedarquist here Julie Tameo is absent. Mr. Scott Wishna here. Uh Mr. Kenneth Korn here. Mr. Kevin Ferrero and Mr. Jeff Ty. Yes. Here. Do you have a quorum? Now I'm going to take a nomination for chair for 2026. So, I'd like to nominate Jeffrey Tiger for chairman of the planning board for the year 2026. May I have a second? Are there any other nominations? Second. We got it. I better be recording. Got it.

Okay. Uh, no other nominations at this time. So, I'm going to do a roll call for Jeff Tiger as chairman. Mr. David Barnett. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alex Kaiser. Yes. Mayor Harris Laughther. Yes. Mr. Aaron Locker, yes. Mr. Cedarquist, yes. Mr. Wishna, yes. Horn, yes. Mr. Ferraro, and Jeff Tiger, yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. Thanks. You know, today is my 20th year on the plan board. Well, congrat. I'm excited.

Uh, and we have some great birthdays. We have Mr. Wish's birthday. We have two new members. And we have Julie's birthday. So, it's a good day. Uh, okay. So, let's uh do uh calls for vice chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to nominate Aaron Lauer. I'll second. Vice Chair, I'll second. Any other calls for nominations? Seeing none, can we have a roll call? Mr. Barnett? Yes. Chair Tiger? Yes. Mayor Laugher? Uh, I was told I should abstain, but he has my full support. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Uh, Mr. Cedarquist. Yes. Mr. Lishna. Yes. Mr. Korn.

Mr. Ferraro. And Mr. Laauer. Honor of the mayor. I will stay. Motion passes. He just needs a new phone. The Samsung phone. Amen. Anyway, congratulations, Aaron. Uh, okay. Board attorney. Can we have nominations for board attorney? Want to think this through? No, I nominate Matt Tavveris. Sure. Second. Yes. Any other calls for any nominations for board attorney? You have anyone? I mean, I could call some people. Yeah. U we have a No. Seeing no none others, can we have a roll call, please? Mayor Laugher. Yes. Mr. Barnett? Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser? Yes.

Mr. Laer? Yes. Mr. Cedarquist? Yes. Mr. Mr. Wishna, yes. Mr. Korn, yes. Mr. Ferrara, yes. And Chair Tiger, yes. Okay. So, uh, the next one is for conflicts board attorney. From time to time, Matt can have a problem with an applicant, something come up where his firm can't represent us. So, we typically will take who the zoning board has used, which would be in the past has been Bruce Bergen. Um we he hasn't yet been before us, but he's been a longtime resident and you know I would like to throw his name out there as one of the options. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to nominate Bruce Bergen for the conflict board attorney.

Any other uh calls for nominations? Seeing none, can we have a roll call? Mr. Barnett, yes. Vice Chair Laugher, yes. Mayor Laugher, yes. Mayor Kaiser, yes. Mr. Cedarquist, yes. Mr. Wishna, yes. Mr. Warren, yes, Mr. Ferrer and Chair Tiger passes. Okay, so board planners this well this we had we had three I think we had three submissions for board planner when our subcommittee reviewed it. So Aaron, you were there, right? You on the subcommittee for planners?

Yes. Yes. We didn't we didn't need for a second. I think there was and you can correct me all if I'm wrong that I think we the board the the subcommittee kind of came towards the idea of using two planners two firms to be able to see which one we want to continue with the future. So I think the idea is we would appoint two planners and then the as chair and as board engineer or or our board engineer whoever that might be will help decide who will uh we will use per application that I think that's that that

Okay. So, what I I guess I we can call for nominations, but what I'd like to throw out there is that we nominate both um Harbor Consultants as well as CME. Um I don't know the exact names uh that would that would come along with it to be our board planner. And then we would the board board engineer and I would work through this and figure figure out who's the right person for each application. We'll try that for some time. Who made the motion? I did. Oh, okay. Are you making a motion for both? I'm making them to appoint both as our board planner and then we'll decide who, you know, we're working through with Mr. Disco.

Got it. Do we have to do both separately? Okay. So, I'll make a motion to have Harbor Consultants as our planner. As one of our planners. All right. Chairman Tiger. Yes. Uh, Vice Chair Laugher. Yes. Mayor Laugher. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Mr. Cedarquist. Mr. Wishna. Mr. Warren. Yes. And Mr. Fra. Motion passes for Harbor. Okay. And then at the same time, we would have as a board planner would be as a second board planner, we would use CME as a as a potential option.

Make a motion. Can I make a motion that we approve the board approve CME as board planner? Second. Chairman Tiger. Yes. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Mayor Lawer. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Alex. Alex. I'll come back. We'll come back to you, Mr. Cedar. Mr. Wishna, Mr. Kin, Mr. Ferraro, Vice Chair Laer. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser, Alex,

I think I'm frozen. I can't hear you guys. All right, we're gonna You're gonna just say yes. Just say yes. Okay, don't no. It's It's for CME to be one of our planners. What is it? It's for CME to be one of our planners. Yes. Okay. Great. Passes. Thanks. Okay. The next one is always uh we skip. Okay. Yeah. So, um for nominations for Mr. Chairman, I'd like to um nominate Mike um Disco for the board engineer.

Any other calls for I'll second it, but any other calls for nomine nominations? This is tough. Seeing none, can we enter? Can we have a roll call? Mr. Barnett. With pleasure. Yes. Tiger. Absolutely. Mayor Laer. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Mr. Peterquist. It's for Mike Disco. Mike Disco for board engineer. Yes. Jen needs to speak up, please. Okay. You were good for a while. Let's keep this moving. All right. M Mr. Cedarquist, Mr. Wishna, yes. Mr. Korn,

yes. Mr. Ferrar, and vice chair Lawer, yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you, board members. Okay. Uh, next one is for board secretary. We want to like go in executive session to discuss that or does anyone chairman? I'd like to nominate uh Jennifer Law for the board secretary for the year 2026. Second. Any other nominations for board secretary? Seeing none, can we have a roll call? Mr. Barnett? Yes. Chair Tiger? Yes. Mayor Laer? Yes. Uh Deputy Mayor Kaiser? No. Shameful. Yes.

He's changing it to yes. Okay. Mr. Cedarquist, yes. Mr. Wishna, yes. Mr. Korn, yes. Mr. Ferrara, and Vice Chair Wer. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, board members. And from time to time, um, our board secretary is indisposed. She may not be able to make it. Could be a change of meeting, whatever it matters. So, we would always go with the board secretary. And typically our director of engineering is nominated to fill the spot. Is anyone anyone concerned? I'll make a motion to make our director of engineering as the assistant board secretary. Second. We have a roll call. Chair Tiger. Yes. Mayor Larer.

Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Mr. Cedarquist. Yes. Mr. Wishna. Yes. Mr. Korn. Yes. Mr. Ferraro. And Vice Chair Laer. Motion passes. Congratulations, Mike. We're really pleased to have you in that position. Uh so our official newspaper of our the planning board typically what we do in the past is that we make we make the local source our paper and then is the star ledger still in operation and that the Star Ledger will be our backup if and only if we need to publish right away in order to have a meeting. We go for the cheapest option is is the best way to say. So I'd like to uh make a motion to

Before you do that, Mr. Chair, can I just make a statement about that real quick? Go ahead. Yeah. So, coming in March, we may So, you probably have heard that we we're gonna switch to online noticing. So, I guess in March, we're going to have to Matt would probably know more than me, but uh we'll have to Yeah. March 1st. Okay. So, for now, this will be our our official newspapers and then when that changes in March, we'll the board will make a we'll come back to it. So it's the local source then the star ledger as backup when needed. So moved. Second. We have a roll call. Mr. Barnett. Yes.

Mayor Lauer. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Mr. Cedarquist. Yes. Mr. Wishna. Yes. Mr. Korn. Yes. Mr. Ferrara. Vice Chair Lauer. And Chairman Tiger. Yes. Motion passes. Okay. So, we have official meeting dates that were sent to the board. Everyone have a chance to review the official meeting dates. So, Oh, I haven't. Oh, why not? They're on the Google Drive. I didn't know I had access to that. Yeah, you do. I'll send Hey, you have access to everything. I Well, yeah. So, basically, I'm going to send out calendar in the

second Monday of every month except when there's holidays or things that that come up that are and some virtuals. We try to have a virtual once every quarter. Um obviously if there's a significant application when we have a virtual meeting we will absolutely try to come in person or that application will get carried to another meeting works for me. So uh the virtual meetings will um always be at six dependent on a poo schedule. So cool.

Uh so with that uh I'm going to ask for um motion to approve our meeting dates for 2026. So moved. Second. I will send you all calendar invites probably tomorrow so you'll all have them. Don't count them like David Barnett. Mr. Barnett. Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser. Yes. Mayor Lower. Yes. Mr. Cedarquist. Yes. Mr. Wishna. Yes. Mr. Korn. Yes. Mr. Ferraro. Vice Chair Laer. And Chair Tiger. Yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Great. So, we have an attendance policy that the township set out for us that you if you're going to miss a meeting, you need to let Jen and myself know I think it's what 48 hours in advance. Uh if you let us know, you're excused. If you don't let us know, then it's an absence. Once you get three absences in a row, it's potentially say. So, uh just make sure if you if people have busy lives, like Julie's birthday, she wrote us in advance. Totally fine. Everyone has busy lives. So, it allows us to conduct the board and know if we're missing people or if I have to say, "Julie, I know it's your birthday, but we have a big application and we need we need members there." It allows us to be able to do that. Showing up, not showing up and us not knowing only causes sometimes issues. So, uh just make sure you please if you're going to miss the meeting, send a note to um to uh Jen and myself. U subcommittee. So, we we typically have two subcommittees. One is redevelopment um which typically deals with potential applications that come in or redevelopment applications to meet in advance to kind of clean up the applications. So we'll put t the board we'll put a few people on each and a few people on the ordinance and ad hoc subcommittee when things come up that we have to meet. So for the redevelopment committee uh I think I'd like to carry over what we did last year since we're in the process of doing a redevelopment application which was Aaron Scott and David and myself. That's one, two, three, four, which is fine. And um ordinance, which Harris cannot be on. Um neither can uh an ad hoc subcommittee will be um Richard, Julie, um and our two alternates from a standpoint. Uh Harris and Alex, you guys don't join the subcommittees unless we need you or as as a backup because the ordinance you guys are enacting what we're doing anyway.

Um okay, so we have three things we just have to get through. One, uh is the ugly dumpling uh 9-2025s, which is the preliminary and final site plan conditional use for a restaurant. Uh this came before the board last month. The board unanimously approved it. The resolution was posted on the Google Drive written by our our council. Everyone have a chance to review the resolution? Yep. Any questions or concerns? Nope. So, uh, could we have a a motion to approve the resolution? Mr. Chair, like to make a motion to approve resolution 9-2025s. Second. Can we have a roll call? No. Mr. Barnett? Yes. Deputy Mayor Kaiser? Yes. Uh, Mr. Cedarquist? Yes. Mr. Wishnner? Yes.

Vice Chair Laer? Yes. And Chairman Tiger? Yes. Motion passes for the new members. You weren't on there, so obviously you can't vote for what's what's the case. Uh the next one, we did a modification of resolution is what it's called for 9-2024s. This was Congregation Israel, 18 Pit Road, block 1801 39. Everyone was present for that meeting. Uh the resolution, the modification of the resolution was posted on the uh Google Drive. Any questions or concerns? Can I have I before it gets adopted, does that have to be published? Um, it has to be just the same as if any other resolution.

So, it has to be published. Okay. So, we have to publish it and do it. Okay, that's fine. So, can I have a motion to uh approve the resolution? So, move. Can I have a second? I'll second it. Can we have a roll call? Mr. Barnett? Yes. Vice Chair Lauer? Yes. Deputy Mayor Alex Kaiser? Yes. Mr. Cedarquist? Yes. Mr. Wishna? Yes. And Chairman Tiger? Yes. Motion passes.

Okay. The application that's on the agenda for tonight is 1-2026s Ridge Apartments LLC doing business as Gateway Manor, 597 Mars Avenue block 505 lot 1 for preliminary and final site plan with variances residential development. We received a letter from the attorney uh granting us a 30-day extension and to carry this application to February 9th, 2026. Did you receive that, counselor? just Yes, I did. I received it and reviewed it and it allows this board to carry the the the time that we the application needs to be done by 30 days. Yes.

Okay. So, uh for anyone in the public uh that's here or watching, this application is going to be carried to February 9th, 2026 with no further notice. So, if anyone's listening or watching or in the audience, you will not receive a notice for this application again. Um last thing is um Okay. So then then any members of the public that wish to speak about any business before the planning board

and don't rush up all at once. Seeing none, we'll close this to the public and um we'll just basically I want you to go in the room. We just want to congratulate you for joining us. It's on board. We try to have a good time. Um you just read a lot of the stuff in advance so you know what it is. Ken, it's good to have you as well. Congratulations and it's great to have the mayor on the board as well. Um and I think that's it. Happy birthday Scott and happy birthday Julie. Anything else from the board? Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I I All right. See you, Alex. Byebye. Hey, Jen. I won. It was uh exactly 20 minutes.