MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING BOARD
OF THE BOROUGH OF MOUNTAIN LAKES
September 25, 2008
Chair Sandy Batty read the Open Public Meeting Advertisement Notice: Adequate notice of this meeting was given to the Citizen and the Daily Record, posted with the Borough Clerk and the Bulletin Board, and made available to all those requesting individual notice and paying the required fee.
New members executed their oaths of office: Rainer Mimberg (1st Alternate) and Peter Holmberg (2nd Alternate.)
ROLL CALL:
Members Present: Holmberg, Mimberg, Nix, Nachshen, Loveys, Dunn, Gormally (arr. 7:35), Tempesta, Shaw, Batty Absent: Selver
Also Present: Attorney Peter Henry
REVIEW OF MINUTES: The minutes of the July 24, 2008 meeting were approved by voice vote.
PUBLIC HEARINGS:
Carried from June 26 to September 25, 2008:
ROBERT C. & MARY ELLEN WAGGONER 26 Lake Drive
Block 101, Lot 105 Appl. #08-234
Minor Subdivision RA zone
By letter of request from their attorney, MaryAnne Connors Brennan, this subdivision application has been withdrawn without prejudice. Attorney Henry said this action would allow them to refile the application.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Master Plan Reexamination
Since Committee Chair Barbara Palmer has moved, Joan Nix agreed to assume leadership of this reexamination. Nix brought up two points that were open when she sent this report to the Board:
Page 7, item 12 - that is verbatim from the 2002 reexamination report so no change is required.
Page 4, Land use related ordinances passed since 2002 - there are three more that should be added to the list:
6-10-02 Clarification zones/permitted uses
9-26-05 Amendment to storm water system
9-24-07 Restrictions on outside water use for conservation purposes
Two notes can be removed; the three ordinances should be added in chronological order.
Nix incorporated the comments from the last Planning Board meeting.
She also received comments from Ellen Emr after the Council meeting presentation.
Other Board comments and changes follow:
Steve Shaw, page 14, 1st sentence - 9/26/05 date should be added. There is a typo in 3rd paragraph from the bottom.
Frank Dunn, page 16 - typo on item 6.
Peter Henry, page 16, #6, suggested, “This new element would address strategies to provide….
#7, remove phrase, “Once Highlands Master Plan…” and add “The Borough should review the sections….”
#8, remove “ing” from berming or recompose the sentence
Corey Nachshen pointed out typos to Joan Nix.
Peter Henry suggested consistency in capitalization of Borough throughout the document
page 8 - Henry questioned the description of population growth statistics. After confusion about whether the population had increased “to” or “by” 10.6%, Henry suggested removing the 10.6% and stating that the population had grown.
Henry also questioned the statement about the population increase of the number of children under the age 14; he suggested “the school enrollments indicate that the increase in young population had reversed.”
Sandy Batty suggested, “by the 2000 census, the trend had reversed….., the population had increased by 10.6% and the number of children under age 14 had increased the most.”
Batty noted that she had made a presentation to Council at their August meeting and Ellen Emr had responded.
Henry – page 9, State Regulations, 4th line - suggested removing “to be.... and…later”. Under Circulation issues, should be “many fewer and much smaller”.
Regarding refurbished sidewalks, it should read, “near the Wildwood and Briarcliff Schools and the Train Station.”
Page 10 - Historic district designation, change “registrees” to “registers.”
Page 11, remove the last sentence.
Page 13 - Maximum water usage limitations, there was disagreement over how many well permits had been issued. Peter Henry suggested stating “At least one individual well permit has been issued.”
Page 14 - Affordable Housing – suggested adding at the end of the paragraph, “There are a number of legal challenges pending.”
Page 14 - Highlands Act, remove “expected”.
Page 17 – remove “In addition, foster education”
Board members suggested other spelling and punctuation changes.
Peter Holmberg asked about the recreation proposal on page 6. Joan Nix noted that the Committee recommended changes that will be presented to the Planner; this is a report and does not include all the amended chapters.
Attorney Henry said that the Planning Board should adopt the report by Resolution, send it to Council and the County Planning Board and notify adjoining municipalities. You can send them copies or they can request a copy.
Henry had prepared a resolution in case this version was adopted. He noted that the next meeting is October 23; that is the limit of when you can adopt this. Henry said he could tweek the resolution to indicate adoption with minor changes.
Sandy Batty asked if the Board was ready to adopt this with the suggested changes.
Henry suggested adding “as editorially revised at the 9/25/08 meeting” to the title page. The title page will also be modified to reflect current Board and Committee members.
Steve Shaw moved to adopt the resolution as amended, seconded by Joan Nix and approved by 9-0 roll call vote.
Joan Nix will send the revised copy to Peter Henry and it will be attached to the Resolution.
Committee Reports: Sandy Batty noted that, with the exception of the Borough Manager and Council, it is important for each Board member to serve on a Committee. The three standing committees have been Master Plan, Site Plan and Ordinance. Steve Shaw announced that Richard Urankar has resigned and his seat has been filled by the appointment of Dan Happer. Shaw suggested that the Highlands Committee should reconvene.
After discussion, Chair Batty announced the Planning Board Committees:
Master Plan – Joan Nix & Rainer Mimberg
Site Plan Review – Corey Nachshen & Ralph Loveys
Ordinance – Sandy Batty & Peter Holmberg
Highlands – Steve Shaw, Sandy Batty, Charlie Gormally
Highlands Committee Report – Batty noted that the Plan was adopted but there was support for the Governor to veto the minutes. Sandy attended a meeting with mayors and the Governor; the discussion was at least 75% on COAH. After we learned that our numbers had come in at 87, Batty asked, “Why can’t the COAH deadline be extended and some of the build-out be extended to the Highlands Plan? The Governor said the communities and Highlands should work together. The Highlands Committee said they are ready to work with COAH but COAH did not reciprocate. Steve Shaw reported that Susan Kimball did a COAH presentation to Council. She will return to update Council on the Third Round Plan. There are court challenges, so Council is taking a “wait and see” approach because it is likely there will be additional changes and it is anticipated that the deadline will be moved. Joe Tempesta and Peter Henry agreed that, statewide, there is not a serious concern about meeting the December 31 deadline, but it is the deadline unless the time is extended. It was agreed that we could go in with a number based on current regulations and it could be adjusted if the regulations are modified.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Marge Jackson, Secretary