Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on August 11 2026
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Aug 11 2026 · Council
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Speaker 1Good evening everyone. We're gonna start the meeting. Welcome to the August 11th, 2026 Town Council meeting for Piscataway. Please turn off and silence your cell cell phones during the public meetings. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 3 1 PL 1975, specifying the time, the date, location, log in or dial in information. And to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building, the municipal court, and the two municipal library bulletin boards, the municipal website, providing a copy to the official newspapers of the township. And by following a copy in the office of the township clerk, in accordance with the certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes. There will be public comment periods for both remote and in-person attendees Separately, each member of the public shall have only one opportunity to speak during each public portion. As the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or logged in user account. We ask that if you wish to speak, that you log in or dial in separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual. Should you have any further comments or questions. The Town Council is always available by email and phone, and you can always call the mayor's office during the normal operating hours.
Speaker 1Ms. Cedar, can you please call the role
Speaker 2Council Member Cahill here. Council Member Carmichael Here. Council Member Espinosa Here. Council Member Liebowitz Here. Council Member Rashid Here. Council Member Uhrin Here. Council President Lombardi
Speaker 1Here. And would everyone please join us in the flag salute, knowing that we'll have a lot of comments on the upcoming ordinance. We've moved, moved some of the business portion of the meeting forward to get that out of the way so that we have more time for everyone's comments going forward. So number five are comments from the administration and CA council regarding adjournment of any matters on the agenda. Do we have any comments from the council? Seeing none, we'll move to number six, which is open to the public for comments regarding item number seven, which is the consent agenda items. So at this point we're gonna open to the public for any comments only on the consent agenda items.
Speaker 1Yeah, for remote attendees, if you wish to speak at this time regarding the consent agenda only, please raise your hand either on the Zoom app or if by phone by pressing star nine when it is your time to speak here, a request to unmute yourself, please click the or your phone to unmute yourself at that time. Please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. Again, this is only for items for the consent agenda and we will open to remote
Speaker 2Council president. There are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item.
Speaker 1The re, the remote portion is closed for the public portion of the consent agenda. Anyone wishing from the public here in person attendee if you wish to speak at this time regarding consent Agenda items only. Again, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take a seat after completion of the comments or questions and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. Again, it's for the consent agenda items number seven.
Speaker 3Hi, this is Pratik and I live at 29. Does it work? Hello? Yep,
Speaker 1We can hear you. Just
Speaker 3Questions number G and meetings. I think we pretty much banned any opioid stuff in this town. I think it, there was a legislation that we talked about, I think probably a year or two back. So I don't know what this money is doing here. That's the first thing. And the second question that I have is, when you're talking about universe ambulance services, that $80,000, how much does the ambulance cost nowadays and what is the cost of staff? Because at 80,000, I don't think that the numbers add up. So I really don't know who runs all these fiscal systems and how do you come up with numbers and how do you just tack up every year, 3% raise without even understanding the underlying problems that brings those costs to reality or to transparency. Because year now, I see every year government ledger is getting distorted every single year, every single quarter. Because you're using last line baseline numbers and attacking 3%. And by the way, the government productivity is coming all the way down and taxpayers are paying more and more to get less and less of government services.
Speaker 1Go ahead.
Speaker 5Let me, let me first address your first question. Letter G. National Opioid Trust. That is money. So there was a national lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies who dispensed opioids in an ill manner. As a result, local governments, including around the con, across the country, are receiving opioid settlement funds. Those funds are used to help do outreach. You've heard me speak on a previous meeting. We have an opioid. We have an outreach community worker who works with the schools who educates kids parents with respect to addiction, opioid use, confidence maturity in terms of making smart decisions for yourself. So this is nothing more than settlement monies the township receives and it's meant for educating the public against addict about addiction and opioid use.
Speaker 1Excuse me.
Speaker 5No, around. No. This has nothing to do with anything other than monies given as a result of a national settlement. With respect to zero, the township has a competitive contract for emergency ambulance services. So this is just, this is just authorization to extend the existing contract until such time the township is able to advertise for a new one.
Speaker 1Thank you for that clarification. Anyone else wishing to speak on the consent agenda? Seeing none will close that portion. We'll move to number seven, which is the consent agenda. Resolutions for efficiency items have been consolidated into consent agenda to be voted on together and the materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting. Do I have a motion? Motion? Oh second Ms. Cedar, can you please, please call the rule
Speaker 2Council member Cahill? Yes. Council member Carmichael. Council member Espinosa. Yes. Council member Liebowitz. Yes. Council member Rashid? Yes. Council member Rin. Yes. Council President Lombardi?
Speaker 1Yes. And the consent agenda passes. Member eight is an ordinance under first reading. It's the acquisition right of way fee simple easements for Holly Lane and Blackford Avenue Road improvements. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Ms. Cedar, can you please, please read this ordinance, be it
Speaker 2Resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance for the Acquisition of Rights of Way easements and Land and Fee Simple for the improvement of Blackford Avenue and Holly Lane in Piscataway Township, county of Middlesex State of New Jersey being is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading and public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Hose Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the first day of September, 2026. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the township clerk for any interested member of the public.
Speaker 1Thank you Ms. Cedar, do I have an offer for the first reading
Speaker 6Offer? Dennis,
Speaker 1Do I have a second?
Speaker 2Second Libo.
Speaker 1Ms. Cedar, please call the rule
Speaker 2Council member Cahill? Yes. Council member Carmichael. Yes. Council member Espinosa. Yes. Council member Liebowitz? Yes. Council member Rashid?
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Council member Rin? Yes. Council President Lombardi?
Speaker 1Yes. And the ordinance first reading passes. Number nine is an ordinance second reading. And I'd like to give the mic over to our township attorney who has a few comments prior to us speaking about this next ordinance.
Speaker 6Thank you Council president. So the council's been briefed quite a bit on this. You know, we met with each of you, we also passed a settlement months ago that this is basically a continuing compliance of that settlement. The ordinance does say 83 units, but as we've talked with the community also we have been able to reduce that by finding units elsewhere, two 50 units after meeting with the community, we also went back to the developer and we have gotten their agreement to confirm with the council that that it will be senior housing 55 and up. So in order to reduce any school age traffic coming out of that development and ho hopefully also reducing the amount of rush hour traffic out of that development, a reminder to the council that this is not something that the township wants to do. It is something the township has to do.
Speaker 6If we don't pass this tonight, we will lose our build immunity to builders remedies. Which means that the township will not be able to enforce its zoning laws throughout the township, including at this site. Which means that we won't be able to restrict any type of building in any zone and for any density. So just a reminder of that also wanted to provide the council that the effect of, of building these 50 units here gets credits because the township is actually contributing. 'cause it would not be feasible to, to make it fully affordable without the township contribution. Through our affordable housing fund. We're getting a hundred unit affordable housing credit to meet our goal if we don't do this and if, if we, the township has to find 500 units to build elsewhere because we would have to build 400 market in order to get an agreement to build a hundred affordable. As we talked to the community about that, we showed them that there is no other location to build those 500 units. It just doesn't exist. You know, it is, it is the township and I understand the council is in a, between a rock and a hard place to make this decision. Unfortunately, legal advice, my, you know, we have to proceed in order to abide by the settlement in order to protect the township from, from being able to actually control what's built, where, how much density is built, et cetera. Thank you
Speaker 7For that clarification. Council President, can I ask one que Oh, I'm gonna ask one clarifying question since the, the, our township attorney was speaking on that. So when we lose because of, I'm sorry this, I think we have to hold down the mic when we lose control. You're talking about for all the pieces of land where developers are already either in the middle of building or about to build housing that would have market and affordable, correct? Or is that
Speaker 6The immunity build
Speaker 7Construction,
Speaker 6The immunity, builders remedies will be for all future construction. So if we have single family homes, we could have developers just buy up a couple of lots and build a skyscraper. It is, it is, it is devastating to our zoning controls. Our zoning regulations that we have now would be challenged at every aspect
Speaker 7Is is that, is that punishment for not coming up with the plan in perpetuity? Like
Speaker 6Well we have this 10 years we have to meet this meet.
Speaker 7So for 10 years.
Speaker 6For 10 years we have the protection
Speaker 7In between the obligations. When the new formulas come out, a builder can then just have at it until, let's say in 10 years if we didn't pass this, we came up with a plan. So for 10 years they could do whatever no matter what. Whether it's single family homes, lots. Yeah, it's any builder, not just the builders that we know today who are like o like over in Stelton Road in the old part of town who are building some apartments. We know the old school will be also residential there. You mean that if we don't pass it today, that builder there who's not built yet, could also then change and scrap all the plans and do whatever they want. Absolutely. Okay. I just wanted clarification.
Speaker 6And, and, and it wouldn't, they wouldn't, they would still have to go through zoning process, but they could easily file in court and without the builder's remedies, immunity they would win essentially. Okay. Alright. They would challenge any, basically they could challenge any zoning decision and overturn it. Right.
Speaker 7I just wanted clarification on that.
Speaker 1And you're referring to the new market school site.
Speaker 7New market school.
Speaker 1Okay. Just so people know.
Speaker 7Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8So council president, I just wanted to ask regarding the senior, this be this change being made to it being senior housing 55 and up, you're saying that's going to reduce the traffic for children going to school for those two schools that are about a block away.
Speaker 6I mean, it won't over the traffic to the schools, but it won't re it won't increase tra traffic that from children that will be in, in that community because 55 and up individuals tend not to have school aged children. So you're not gonna be bringing more school-aged children to the neighborhood.
Speaker 8So you're saying that's not a concern. Now the safety of the children going forward,
Speaker 6The, I mean in terms of this, this developer is still gonna have to go through the zoning process. As we talk to the community, we're still gonna engage the community throughout the process to get their input. And the zoning board is still going to have to, is still going to review, you know, their ingress, egresses, their parking, their, their traffic studies, et cetera. So all of that is still going to be done as the process goes forward. This is just the zoning port part for us to, to comply with the settlement in order to maintain our builder, builder remedy immunity
Speaker 8And the community members will be able to see the plan and have input.
Speaker 6Absolutely. That's our intention and that's what we said to the community at the meeting. Yep.
Speaker 8Okay.
Speaker 1Anyone else? Cedar, can you please read this ordinance
Speaker 2Barrett Za by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled an ordinance to amend and supplement Chapter 21, zoning of the revised general ordinances of the township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey to establish and enact the affordable housing seven a h dash seven zone to address compliance with the township's affordable housing obligations was introduced on the 30th day of June, 2026 and had passed the first reading and was published on the township website on the second day of July, 2026. Now therefore be it resolved that the offer set ordinance having had a second reading on August 11th, 2026 be adopted past and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of passage approval on the township website, be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2026 dash 14.
Speaker 1Thank you Ms. Cedar. And now that this is a second reading, we will open this to the public for remote. Anyone on the remote wishing to speak on ordinance? Please raise your hand at this time.
Speaker 2Council president, there are no individuals with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. We'll
Speaker 1Close the remote portion and we'll now open to the public. For anyone wishing to speak on this matter at this time, please be state your name, address and be advised you have three minutes in which to speak. Thank you very much. Yes.
Speaker 9Yes. Hello. Hi, how are you? Hello everyone. My name is Andrew Morris. I live at four 10 Highland Avenue here in Piscataway. First of all, let me just say you know, hello to everyone because we are Piscataway all of who you see here. All of you are all of us.
Speaker 1You,
Speaker 9We are all here for Piscataway. You are Piscataway. I'm Piscataway, the gentleman here. Piscataway, we all Piscataway. So we have to work together to come up with a solution on this thing. And it's always the last moment. This is it. We had four hours to make a decision or else going to Es
Speaker 1And know that everyone in town is being affected by this, not just this group
Speaker 9Here. Yeah. But, but there's a little problem. So I will, I will review a few of the most important areas. Yes, we understand the state is requiring Piscataway to provide housing size and location are the key issues here. Location, location are the key elements in all real estate. The location of a 50 unit apartment, building a half block from a school generating over a hundred cars, put all students' lives at jeopardy. So the location of this project is poor. It's, it's going to put all the kids that we know in jeopardy. It is so near one second. It is so near a school that it's in a school zone, a school safety zone.
Speaker 9And what is the purpose of a school safety zone? Google a school safety zone protects children, families, and staff near schools and, and, and lowers the traffic in the school's safety zone. This place would be, if it goes through, would be built within the school's safety zone. It is that close to the school. So it seemed ironic and completely opposite that a potential danger would be built in the school safety zone. It's just opposite to what it's made for. The the zone is already exists. The development is too large for its location. That is the problem. As I said, my name is Andrew Morris and I am a proud member of the Concerned Citizens of the Heights. We are here tonight because we love our students and we are concerned about their safety and wellbeing as they go to school to become great people. And these are the parents and the grandparents of the children whose lives will be affected by this permanent oversized housing complex in front of King and Kack school. This is permanent. This is just not a a thing right here. This is generational. That's why so many people came out. They're going to be affected. You'll be affected, but for for generations yet to come, there's a little girl here now who's only four years old. She's gonna start preschool, but she's gonna start kindergarten next year. It's gonna affect her kma.
Speaker 1Okay. Can you sum it up Mr. Morris? 'cause I'm sure we're gonna have a few more to speak to
Speaker 9This. Well, okay, I'm almost done. So, most recently, I'm sure you've heard of Carl Anthony Towns the champion all star who played for the New York Knicks, born and raised in Piscataway. I wonder where he would be if he had been hit in a serious car accident at nine years old while going to school. Malcolm Jenkins two times Super Bowl winner. Everybody knows Malcolm. I wonder where he would be now if he were in a serious traffic accident. John Seller stand, phenomenal basketball player. Played for the Los Angeles Lakers champion Piscataway, born and raised Asia Jones. Thank you. Gold Medal Olympian. Where would she be if she had in a serious car accident? Born and raised, not only athletes in Piscataway, but Brian Wahler, mayor, a student and child raised here in Piscataway. What about you, Mr. Mayor, do you think?
Speaker 1Thank you Mr. Morris.
Speaker 9If you had got hit by a car,
Speaker 1Thank you. Maybe
Speaker 9Rightfully not dead, but maybe a little brain damage, you know?
Speaker 1Thank you. Thank you. So
Speaker 9I would've been in serious trouble with my mother. You would be in serious trouble with your mother.
Speaker 1Let me, let me make, let me make one recommendation. Let, let me one recommendation towards that. I think we should contact both the board of Ed and our police department to work together for a safety plan of how to keep children safe as we would for any school and any child no matter who they are. Thank you.
Speaker 10Yes, councilor PI would like to add to that as well. I mean, I'm looking at the pictures here in the petition. It seems like there's a current problem with the safety of the kids and how the traffic is being organized in front of the school. So I I 100% agree with you that I think it should be,
Speaker 1There are several schools that have traffic problems outside of the schools. Exactly. So it should be looked into all the way around in conjunction with the township and the board of Ed together. I I
Speaker 10Agree with that. And, and if you look at the pictures, it just tells that story right now. What's happening now, even before the, the constructions
Speaker 11Will there, they, it's going to be a traffic study before any zoning
Speaker 1Is completed, correct? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 10It always happens.
Speaker 1Go ahead, sir. Please state your name and address.
Speaker 12Aya Damme. 3 9 9 Highland Avenue. Good evening council members and Mr. Mayor, I stand before you tonight representing the pulsing anxious hearts of the Heights residence. Look at the room tonight. We came to you first with 30 residents. Then we came with 50 tonight we stand here by hundreds. We're not nameless special interest group. We are a united group of hardworking taxpayers families and registered voters who decide the political future of this town. Let the record be entirely clear. The town has known since 2015 that our community vehemently objects to this Unfitting three story 40 foot structure. Yet you chose to ignore us in 2020. You overrode our objections rezoned to cram eight houses into this site instead of six so the builders can make more profit. Now you are rezoning a game to shove a massive 50 unit apartment into the exact same undersized lot you are using a state mandate as an excuse to profit a private developer while completely crushing the families of the heights.
Speaker 12Over the last two council meetings here, the planning meeting over Zoom directly inside Mayor's office, we have laid out our undeniable objections. We're not against state mandate or affordable housing. Our most terrifying reality is safety and infrastructure failure. Our residential streets are extremely narrow. Flooding this exact block with 100 additional vehicle creates immediate severe safety hazard for young children walking to MLK and Kmac. Furthermore, we have shown you pictures of current condition parked cars on both side of the street. During peak school hours or weekend worship hours at our four neighborhood churches. The the proposed apartment building will create massive traffic spikes and will trap ambulances and fire tracks in the impassable bottleneck. These severe emergencies delays will cost human lives and losing even one life to a preventable traffic layout is too many. Compounding this danger, we are already experiencing severe flooding from overbuilding on undersized lots.
Speaker 12Forcing this massive development into this parcel will catastrophically worsen the flooding. This vote tonight is your heavy moral obligation to ensure a disaster never happens in our neighborhood. Remember May 14th town council meeting right before election week, certain council members came to us and promised to protect our community. We trusted you. We went to the ballot box and we voted based on that promise. If you vote yes tonight, you will break our trust and leave a permanent scar on the hearts of the families of this room. And we have long memories. When the next, when the next election comes, we'll collectively remember exactly who chose developer profit over their own constituents. We will mobilize, we will organize, we will take our votes elsewhere. We do, do not be betray us. Vote no to this ordinance, deny this variances and find this mandated units where they actually fit, protect our children, protect our neighborhood, and honor these voters who put you on those seats. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 1You.
Speaker 11Hi, my name is Annette Rio, 5 0 2 Runyon Avenue. I just have three questions. One is the River Crest Swim Club was removed and purchased by a builder. And I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, that is also senior low income housing. Correct. So that's, that'll be two.
Speaker 6It's, it's, it's not low income. It's restricted,
Speaker 1You know what, state your three questions so that you don't lose time and then they'll ha they'll answer those for you. Okay ma'am.
Speaker 11I think that if this is built next to schools, it will affect the future desirability of incoming new residents. So that's just a statement. And will there be, are you guys planning to have stores underneath these apartments that you're only housing? Ma'am. Okay, because I heard there would be stores underneath. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3I'm resident of Pisca and, and this again, this whole affordable housing. I'm sure residents of our town have issued. I'm sorry,
Speaker 13Can you state your name and I,
Speaker 3Okay. The question that I have is just not whether we build affordable housing or not. I believe in free market capitalism. Capitalism creates prosperity in a $5 trillion economy. Why do we need affordable housing is the first question we should be asking. By lowering standards of living and this problem of people not able to afford housing, that's a problem between employee and employer. We have created HR departments compliance audits, bank managers still people don't have money and they still need to go and live into affordable housing. Hearts proliferated by government mandates. I want to also understand definition of a suburban town. When people moved out of New York City, they wanted a suburban, what that means is no house or the the density, high density housing should be available where people can drive in cars, not walk. If they want to do that, they're more than welcome to go back to New York City, Dallas or any other city like Chicago.
Speaker 3All these developers, you know what they do? They hire politicians and then just say, oh, it's not my problem. It's, it's people who are asking that. When we ask problems for senior citizens, well let's ask this, how come they cannot live in their own homes right now? What is stopping them? We're talking about affordability crisis here again, created by inflated taxes and your ledgers that are distorted like there is no tomorrow and there is no accountability right now that you will take, but you're gonna build buildings after buildings. This mayor, he built those warehouses and he claimed that he won the case in the court. This was his history. Not a single sole for last four years have walked into the building. There is no jobs created. That money was wasted. These are the track records.
Speaker 13Hello sir. Good evening. Paul Sinkler, 4 34 Fisher Avenue. Welcome. Two things. First of all, I'm a grandparent. I'm 74 years old and I have two 16 month old twins that live with me. Alright. And you know where they're gonna go to school here in Piscataway. So when you say that seniors will not have children, all right? Not exactly. Secondly, can this project be moved? Because the first thing I thought of was South Washington Avenue where we're putting in the, the park. Alright. And it's, it's accessible.
Speaker 1We can't build houses on the, where we have the park. It's not able
Speaker 13Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I There are other
Speaker 14I ex Paul. Yeah, no way. It's happening. And housing's being built on the ecological park. So just get that outta your mind. No way.
Speaker 6It's, it was no
Speaker 14Way. It was
Speaker 1Brought, I
Speaker 14I have gotten ski graft over that. So you are advocating to build housing on the ecological park. It
Speaker 1Was brought with, excuse me, excuse. So,
Speaker 6So counsel, I can tell you why that, that, that land was bought with public funds by the state and the county. And it was, and there was de restricted from development. So even when we're looking at certain recreational uses for that site, we actually can't build active recreational because they don't abide by the deed restrictions. So there, there is no opportunity, unless the council has probably another $20 million to, to buy out those deed restrictions. 'cause the state is not friendly to to, to buying out those deed restrictions. We cannot, we will not be able to build on that site.
Speaker 1Do you have anything else, sir?
Speaker 13Oh, absolutely. Secondly, our men in uniform and our ambulance services, they're very busy with our senior, senior facility right here. So now we're going to throw in a second facility that's going to also have calls for service. And we're not,
Speaker 1There is a high demand for a senior living in the town.
Speaker 13There can be high demand, but it's high, highly serviceable also. All right. And we must think about that there's a cost all the way around also with, with our police officers. We have what we have to hire more is going to cost everybody here, including myself. And I'm a retired trooper. Alright, thank you for your pension. All right. However, alright. The cost, the manpower is something that is rarely put into the equation when we talk about a development. All right? And this may seem like nothing. All right? Because it's only 50 units. 50 units can be very, very needy. All right, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Wow. Okay. How's everybody doing? My name is Brian Fortney, 7 31 River Road. I have one question. We have a lot of development in the township of Skyway. A lot of rentals. We gotta pay taxes. We have, we're homeowners. What about, is this gonna be rentals for, for, for our seniors? Are they purchasing these houses and they're gonna pay taxes like we do or we don't have an answer?
Speaker 6Yeah, I, I mean, to the extent that the renters pay taxes indirectly, I would say that
Speaker 13They don't pay property taxes. So they do not pay property taxes. So,
Speaker 6So the
Speaker 13They don't pay property taxes. Someone
Speaker 6Pays property taxes. Right. So I I would, I I will say rental houses doesn't, they don't get away with tax not paying taxes. They get a
Speaker 13Tax payment when they do a development.
Speaker 6But to the extent that that discussion hasn't been finalized, this is, we're in the very preliminary stages. I do wanna bring up something that we did, we did bring up in the c community meeting, when we showed the community all the other sites, we did point out that the problem with this situation also is what the legislature did with this law. The, in the previous rounds, we would have to just designate possible locations. And this round we had to actually have sites that were confirmed available with, with actual letters from developers saying they were gonna build out in the next few years. This is not a 10 year, 10 year round anymore. This is a three year round, essentially what's happening. And because of that, we were very limited also, besides the fact that Piscataway has very little open, open land anymore, unfortunately. And the state,
Speaker 13Who are you telling? So,
Speaker 6So, which is, which is, which is, which is why we, we, we were, we were in court and for right filing briefs, even, even like New Year's Eve, please let him speak. We were filing briefs even New Year's Eve. And we had said that to the county community meeting is that at the end of the day, we had to find locations that we could prove to the court or submit documentation to the court that were gonna be developed. This w we had, we went through every site with the community and put up the map. And every site is, there's other sites in neighborhoods similar to yours. This isn't something I am, you know, I'm the attorney. I don't have, I don't get elected, I don't vote. You know, I, but at the end of the day, this isn't something that I don't think any of the council wants, but legally, legally, we have to do this. And this is, this is something that the state forced upon the township, and we have, we still have an appeal pending in, in the appellate division because we have fought the number, we have fought all the way through. This is not,
Speaker 13You know, you, if you can't address my question, my question is, who's gonna be paying taxes and will these people would be paying taxes or are we gonna absorb, that's my question.
Speaker 6The property owner's gonna pay the taxes, whether how
Speaker 13Property owner of the whole co of the, of the building, correct? No tax abatements.
Speaker 6No tax abatements. Okay.
Speaker 13We look at tax records just open, we paid taxes.
Speaker 8Who, I just have a question. You said there's another round. Is there any, any opportunity that this structure could be replaced in the next round, in a lower level of housing, be put in their neighborhood?
Speaker 6The next round is 10 years from now, there's no opportunities to replace it if we don't move forward with this today with there is no options. Unfortunately. This is, this is, this is a kind of a last resort situation where the planners from the state were pushing us and we had multiple planners on our side just looking for a way to meet the crazy requirement that they put upon us. Which, just
Speaker 7Clarification counselor, if you could, because there's a lot more folks here. Could you just clarify why we filed an appeal to the state on please have order?
Speaker 6Yeah, sure. Councilwoman. So essentially what happened was when they put and created this and created this new law, the state created a formula that I personally don't agree with and I think is highly flawed. And it came, they came to us in a very expedited fashion where they had to essentially go through this process within a month and a half with, for every town in New Jersey, which was insane. And,
Speaker 7Wait,
Speaker 6Excuse me, me, this is, this replaced mount, please. This, this replaced Mountain Laurel. And essentially what that formula did, they came to us with the DCA map, which we actually, I think provided to the community through their attorney. It showed, showed, they basically took the Google maps, looked for every piece of green space and highlighted and said, this is counted into your formula and in
Speaker 7Spaces that could not be built upon.
Speaker 6Yes, absolutely. Even, even to town public space, right here in the middle of town hall. And even, even wetlands, even it was, so we, our planners then had to go back and basically exempt each of those, each of those areas. And then we back went back to them and said, okay, this is our formula. This is your formula. We're applying it to really what's developable land? And we're coming up with a number closer to around 300. We then presented that to the court and the court and the state planner, and they refused our number and they went back to their number, which was calculated based on a misinformation. And they stuck us with 539 affordable units. Now that's a 20% requirement on affordable housing for any, any developer. Remember, this isn't us building this. We have to get developers to build because we're not paying for it. Okay. And so essentially we, the only way we get them to, to, to build them is we have to incentivize them to build and, and we can only require them to build 20% affordable, which means 539 units multiplied by five is the number of units we have to build in town. Right.
Speaker 7Because it's something, the formula is like every sixth living dwelling would have to be affordable. Yes. So in order to get to the 500 number Yeah. With a developer who's looking to make money, it would be marketplace. And then every sixth or so would have to be affordable. And then my follow up question to you is, and when was this new formula? Like how did the new formula come about? If you don't mind me, just for clarification.
Speaker 6The legislator passed the law in 2025, probably earlier in 2025 and implemented pretty quickly thereafter.
Speaker 7And do we know how they, how they decided what the formula was gonna be?
Speaker 6I do not know. I, I just know the bill was passed. I do not know how the formula was created. We'd have to talk to the state legislature.
Speaker 7Thank you for the clarification. Go ahead
Speaker 16Sir. Hi, my name is Dr. Abba Paki, 58 Lincoln Avenue, Piscataway proud resident for last 26 years. So when we came first time to New Jersey, we had opportunity to look at all the towns and we decided to live in Piscataway because of the suburban nature of the Piscataway. My two kids went to the school right from MLK, Norwood, Akamak and Piscataway High School. In fact, my son ran track with Mr. May's son for three, four years. What I'm trying to say is we chose Piscataway because of the suburban feeling. All of us chose Piscataway because of the suburban feeling. We do not want highest rise buildings in our neighborhood. So my two questions. First question. If ordinances passed today, and you said that it'll go through this committee, that committee, that committee, what is the chance that it'll get rejected after all these committees? And second question is to Mr. Raj with our lawyer, you said just now that you do not agree with this, so why can't we appeal to state saying that we do not agree with this?
Speaker 6So I'm happy to answer that because we have appealed and it's sitting in the appellate division. It's been sitting in the appellate division for six months. And I would tell you we have, I have an appeal pending on another matter with the appellate division now that's two years old. So we, in order to, in order to get the appellate to make a decision, we can't force them to speed themselves up. And in the meanwhile, we still have to comply with the law, otherwise we're gonna lose our builder's remedies, immunities. So we're stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of developable land. When we were talking about the map, when our planners went back and looked at everything, they said, really there's only about 60 acres of developable land in the township. Out of that 60 acres, the courts have basically said, well you need to get letters showing that a developer's gonna actually build on that property and build the number of units you're designating for that property.
Speaker 6Now, not all of that 60 acres is actually being designated or in, in the hands of a developer that's willing to actually write a letter to c to agree to the court to actually build. So we were limited significantly down from that 60 acres to what we had to meet the number on, on how much land we had. It is, it is, I mean I, I will tell you, and I told the community at the meeting we had, we had I think four lawyers, four planners fighting the court like throughout this process. And there was not time periods. It w this didn't happen over a year, didn't happen over six months. They had, this happened over probably about a month, a month and a half. And, and so, you know, I blame the state legislature at the end of the day. And so
Speaker 16Why, why can't this explain to the court saying that this is pending? Stop it right now till till this happens, till the decision is made. We
Speaker 6Asked the court and the court refuse to provide an injunction. So there is, we can't for no lack of, we've tried, we've tried everything you've asked. I literally, this is, this is the point where we have to comply in order to prevent that builder on that, on the property that we're actually talking about today from building whatever he wants. And so, you know, the in order to to, to do that, in order to protect the entire township from rampant building as to what the, whatever developer wants to make to make them maximize at their profits, we have to comply with the co with the court and provide to show that we're complying with, with meeting that number regardless of the fact that we completely disagree with it and have an appeal pending. It is unfortunate that we still have to comply in order to protect the township. And it's, it's, it's, what's
Speaker 16The answer for my first question?
Speaker 6First question again,
Speaker 16First question is, if this is passed today, later on, when it goes to zoning, traffic control, blah, blah, blah, everybody comes back saying that this is not possible to bring, to build 50 units, then what would the answer of the council,
Speaker 6I mean, 'cause we have to comply with the court courts settlement. That case
Speaker 16We'll still go ahead with 50 units. Well why the far of,
Speaker 6To the, to the extent that I think we had told the community that we're gonna continue to, we have to comply with the zoning requirements as part of, as part of the court settlement. Now, to the extent that we're continuing to try and reduce and mitigate the, the building there, as we've talked to the community, that it was 83 when the first court settlement was, was, was forced upon us. And to the extent that we've gotten it down to 50 and now we've gotten it down to active adult and we're gonna continue to work to see where we can move units. Now, I, I'm, I can't guarantee it because we've already pushed units to other places that have agreed to take them and we're kind of running outta space. As I said, we're not being able to even build this PA on the entire 60 acres that are left in the town. So it is, you know, to the extent that I, I'd say, you know, we're gonna continue to have community input throughout the process and that's as, and that's what we're gonna do. I can't say it's gonna be denied.
Speaker 1Go ahead sir.
Speaker 10Yeah, Prashant Shah from 4 26 Roosevelt Avenue in Pisca. I, I agree with many things that, you know, we have said here, but I wanted to go with one item that this gentleman said the grandpa about the, you know, taxes, right? The implication and all. Here's the thing, if we have no say to any of this thing, no matter what we say, you guys cannot do it. Here's the thing, when we build the affordable units, there's always a subsidiary that comes with, you know, either whether it's a federal or state or county or township, they always put some money with it. I'm assuming that, okay? And I don't know if you are a township lawyer from our side or their side, but it sounds like you're gonna do it anyway. Come on. You know, but here is the thing, is there any way on that part of where the building is building and 200 or 500 feet surrounding all the houses, can you reduce the taxes and put everything on the builder because he is gonna make the money anyway, no matter which way he build and cut our taxes by half for next 20 years.
Speaker 10That's one thing. Okay. And if that is not feasible, if that not feasible, can you promise us not to raise taxes for next 20 years?
Speaker 6Yeah,
Speaker 10Yeah. Because if there is a burden coming, you're gonna come to us and raise the taxes by whatever the mean, whether, you know, you're gonna raise over numbers, oh, your house prices have gone up, we're gonna raise the tax, it's this and that, but can you at least put that in the writing that there will not be any tax raised or cut our taxes by at least 50% for next 20 years. That is the wishful thinking. I understand that, but that's what I wanted to propose. Yeah.
Speaker 6So council president, can I just in regard to Thank you sir. In regard to contributions where the, where the builders are not building a hundred percent affordable, they're doing it of their own accord. There's no, there's no township state county supplements here. The township is putting money from its affordable housing fund, however, that is, that is not taxpayer funds. That that fund is built by contributions from developers over the past 10, 20, 30 years. Where if they're not built, every development you've seen in town where they haven't actually built a affordable housing, they have had to contribute and pay per house, per house a an amount of money towards the affordable housing trust fund. So the money that's being put towards this is not from taxpayer funds, it's actually from past developments. And so just wanted to make that clear that this isn't costing taxpayer money. This is coming out of developers I've built in the past.
Speaker 10Yeah, but you are talking about the houses that they are going to build, not the, you know, other things. Can they promise that they're gonna, you know, keep all the roads and other things, tiptop conditions and a mayor who, or the township who's charging us for the roads and other things not to do that, and therefore not to raise our taxes for next 20 years? Yeah, of course not.
Speaker 1Thank you sir. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 17Yeah, thank you Mayor. Thank you the council. My name is Opa and I live on 2 37 Hansen Avenue. And my question is this, you are saying that the state is showing this on our truth, that that has, has to be built there and the the public are saying no, this issue, we have been coming here for over four times on this issue and each time we come here, we are telling you this building does not fit that lot. It doesn't. Okay. Now this is my 24th year here in Piscataway. All my five children went from Norwood to Piscataway High School and went to, you know, went, went to college. Now I have seen how Piscataway has changed, but I looked on that before from from the street where you have the a Martin Luther King all the way down to borough. Those can is a canal.
Speaker 17If you build any on that, on, on that aisle, it's gonna flood the whole place, okay? Despite the traffic. But what I'm saying is that if the state has to shove this on our truth and you believe we're a democracy, we have to vote to put you in office and we have to put you in office and then we, you, you do what we want, then how can you, how can you with the state sh this on our church now do last election, why didn't you put this on a ballot vote for first quick what you put it a ballot. Why? Because if you put this on a ballot because getaway, so we say no, then let me see how the state will shove what we voted for on a church. Now another thing, since you are forcing us to swallow this ugly pill, can we do a class act action suit against the state for the federal government on our behalf?
Speaker 6So counsel, in terms of timing, I don't think there was an opportunity for the township to even put a ballot question on, on the ballot and No, no, let listen, I'm, I I wanna explain why that you have to understand, as I've said before, I'm not changing what I've said. The state legislature passed this bill in early to mid 2025. We didn't know how bad this formula was until, until the state, the DCA issued the maps because we just saw a formula, we didn't know how it would be applied or how they were gonna apply it. This DCA was meant to send us those maps in the summer of la of 2025. If we had seen them, then maybe the council could have said, okay, this is really bad. We're gonna put, we're gonna try and get a ballot question on. Because you have to understand, there has to be a time period before you, before you can even get a ballot question on.
Speaker 6It's a, it's a significant period before you can actually put a ballot question on with the county even regardless, even if there was a ballot question, the legislature had already passed the bill. Okay? So even with a ballot question, it would, the only thing it would do is try and get the state to actually repeal their bill. Which to be honest, I don't think they were gonna do, besides the fact that we didn't get those DCA maps until November, late October, November. I think it was November actually, because we scrambled at the point we got them and we were waiting for them. And, and that's why there was only a month and a half turnaround. That's why we were filing briefs on midnight of New Year's. We had attorneys, none of my office slept over the New Year's and the holiday, holiday week, holiday week. It's, it, it was a, a disservice to all the townships, not just us on how they did this process. We didn't have an opportunity to go to you guys. We didn't have an opportunity to fight it. We filed our appeal. We didn't even get our appeal heard before. They kept continuing to push the process on us. It is, it is, yeah. I mean, I'll leave it there. Okay.
Speaker 17I I have another thing. What, when somebody is convicted to be killed, to be, you know, to be killed in an accord through a, a murder trial before the person can be executed, people can always go for an injunction to relieve that person from being killed until further notice it is done this time around, you have a noose on our neck to put that 50 apartments in that place. When you do that, what, what, you know, what, what are you saying That we have to swallow the appeal then I'm saying that we can be able to file a class action suit against the state from the federal government for doing this on us. Because this is not a, this is not a, this is not the fastest government it a democracy. So I say no, you come no choice.
Speaker 6No. And, and I will tell you, look, listen, if we
Speaker 10Thank you, sir,
Speaker 6And, and I will tell you that the best place to go is the state. If the state fi passes a bill next year fixing this process or, or fixing the formula and then they recalculate the formula and we have to reduce our amount, maybe we can fix this situation. But the problem is right now we have to comply. And with, in terms of criminal conviction, we're talking hypotheticals. I mean, I, I don't want to go into every hypothetical, we'll be here all night, but to the extent that's a, that's a criminal trial and this is civil, there's completely different rules in terms of, and standards as in terms of what you can get for an injunction. And at the end of the day, it's the court's determination and discretion. It's nothing that we get as of right.
Speaker 14Council president, i, i, I just need to shed some light. There was, I believe another 50 towns up in North Jersey who were contesting their numbers, I believe up in Bergen and Morris County up there. And it went all the way up to the state supreme Court and they returned down. Similarly,
Speaker 1Please don't holler out from the audience. Anyone else?
Speaker 10Good evening everybody. Good evening Mayor. Good evening. Council members and staff. Good evening. My name is Pramod Kumar. I was resident for last 26 years. I, I'm resident for last 26 years. I used to on school street recently. I moved just few months back, the Highland Avenue 22 6 Highland Avenue. The reason why we is because School street is like busy street and you know, and I wanted to come to little, you know, quite neighborhood like, you know, and I come here and I was enjoying and suddenly I came to know that this ordinance and you know, trying to come up with the new buildings can hold what is like, you know, mention only traffic, traffic at the intersection of Morice and the Route 18. It's very deteriorating. Like, you know, every time the traffic light comes, we had wait for two minutes at least.
Speaker 10Like, you know, going anywhere like, you know, so mostly like an I commute in the mornings to like, you know, ShopRite or wa, Walmart or my gym. And I see like, you know, a lot of traffic and the only accessible way be for the residents beyond YMCA and there are library residence till the river road. They have only access through the Morice Avenue. Morice Avenue Road, get our route 18 north. So these two, that's the only point people, that's the construction point actually a lot of traffic already. And you put houses suddenly and it's going mean the deterior the situation and it's gonna even worse. And, but like, you know, in the during school times, like, you know that it delayed, I mean for the school children delayed and there's a chance of getting accidents also. So that's only my point. I want you all not to, I mean vote against, I mean not, I mean do a favor and then no, and that's what, that's my point. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 18You sir. Mike Doig, 19 Lincoln Avenue. Welcome. Just a few, few questions for you. Like in the fu I know, I understand the gun is against our head right now we have a situation, but for the future, can we require for every warehouse that is built, that 50, you know, affordable housing is built at the same time possibly next to it. Can we do something like that to, I'm sure, I'm sure we all want it right next to the warehouse, put it next to the warehouse, put it next to the warehouse. Every warehouse that gets built it, the affordable units, you're not gonna get a warehouse. Something like that. But my other question for you is that, and I understand it's gonna take a while to get to that point, but who owns the property that we own, this property that I'm standing on right now. Is that correct? The skyway doesn't own this? No, none of the properties have
Speaker 10Been built on just the Skyway doesn't own any of them.
Speaker 18No, this property, they're outstanding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see a lot of grass all around here. I see a lot of grass. You know, I propose, you know, we wanna be good people for Skyway. I'm sure no one in this room would be upset if we donate the front of this land and we build them all right here, make it look just like the Nellon. We pack as
Speaker 10Many, let's pull a hundred,
Speaker 18A hundred units right here. The mail can look at it every day. All you council people can look at it every day. You can. And you guys can be stuck in the traffic. And I'm sure not one person in this room would vote no and 'em all out here, right? But a perfect solution. We own this land right here. Guns against the wall. We're up against the wall. Is there any problem with doing that? Do any of you guys have a problem with doing that? Does anyone in this room have a problem with them building 'em out front? Anyone? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Put it right out front. Put 'em right up to the sidewalk. Like the nellon. We could have like a little town area and it could be our little town low income section right here. And they could you people. And the greatest thing about it's if there's any crime, the police can just walk over. We're gonna save money, money on gas. It's gonna be the safest low income section in the world with the, I just want solutions. Everyone's complaining, I wanna come here with solutions. Are you
Speaker 1Insinuating that low income housing are bad people?
Speaker 18I'm just saying the mayor, I'm insinuating from the motel six situation and our extended desk study situation and that's not, that's not my words. I heard a lot of stories about it, so I I would be great. Thank you
Speaker 6Council. Just to, I I think people don't understand what affordable housing is.
Speaker 6I wanna give the council or the community an update on what affordable housing is. It is not always what you consider low income. And I'll give you an example, a a four per a four person house in low income at, and there's different categories, but, but on the high end, for someone to, to meet the restrictions for, to go into affordable housing, that family can make $123,840. This isn't housing right now is, is is not a situation and I'm sure all of you realize it is not a situation where poor people are, are not finding houses. It is normal middle class people. And this affordable housing is not unfortunately, the individual there is basically insinuating that it's poor crime rid people in these houses. These are families that make money. I, okay. Oh well
Speaker 18I just
Speaker 6Wanted to give, I just wanted to give the, I just wanted to give the community an understanding of that, that people in these, in this affordable housing are gonna be making decent in salaries. They just can't afford what market is in New Jersey, unfortunately.
Speaker 1Order Please
Speaker 20Order. Go ahead ma'am. Good evening, lat Smith from two 70 Roosevelt Avenue. I have several questions. One though is for everyone on that panel. How many of you have literally not in print, but in actuality, see the piece of property that we are here fighting about? It's right in my back door. Literally. I walk up my house and I could throw a stone, but I wasn't sent a notice. That's how close I am. My neighbors were sent and they had to be right, I mean caddy corner to get a notice. I wasn't sent a notice. So we, I would think the tongue ship need to somehow ratify that instead of this, how many feet or square feet you send it to extend it out so that people within the vicinity gets a notice. That's number one.
Speaker 20You brought up the, you brought up this, the situation that we need to get the board of Ed and the fire department out there. God bless Millie Scott. When our kids were in school, it took Millie Scott every semester to walk my block that we are complaining about, to get it clean so that at least the kids could walk down the street to go to school. Now imagine it's not clean. We have, all right, now the woods are up. The guys come out once in a while, clean it. But when I walk my grandson to school, I have to hold him because there's not enough space. When everything is up for the car, him and me to walk in the street. Now this is what we are fighting about. It's smaller than the parcel right over there where the senior center complex is. It is much smaller.
Speaker 20That's the issue the size of the lot. It was zoned in 2015 for housing. So how did we get it zoned back to apartments. It was zoned for housing. We've been fighting this for a long time. We could look, I, I do it, I go on Google and Google Pisca and I see green and green. Right across the street is waterway. You can't bill across the street. But if you move in these apartments without adequate parking, there will be parking across the street. Somehow they're gonna get in there and park right there because they don't have enough parking or park down inside of my driveway and I'm gonna be upset. So you guys gonna have have to hear me all the time. So I, I'm sorry, I have nothing wrong with the housing. Build a housing build single family housing, make them low income. That's what we had fought for in 2015. Couple low. Hey, he make too low income and the the rest, he gets his money from it. Right? Low income, less time. And the other thing I I I heard that it's low income. Thank you about Go ahead, wrap it up. Wrap it up about seniors not having, they will be in there with kids. We are grandparents raising kids.
Speaker 21Good evening. Good evening. Loretta Gray, three 18 River Crest Drive. I think we can all agree tonight. We all know it's a tiny piece of land and there's, it's too big of a building. The solution is to find some more units that we can put somewhere else because I'm wondering if in 2015, those eight single family houses had been built, what would we do today? That land would've already been taken up.
Speaker 20So
Speaker 21I know that the land doesn't belong to the township and, and all, but I know on Park Avenue there's a quite a large piece of land right across from the YMCA. If you could distribute some of these units so that there's not so many on that little piece of Macedonia land, it might help. So that's all I have to
Speaker 20Say. Thank you. Hi, Shelly. Re freeney 2 47 Highland Avenue. Good evening. Ask a question. You mentioned that you needed 537 affordable units. They're building five on our lot near my house. Where are the rest? 50 50. Where are the other units being built?
Speaker 6Pretty much all over town. There's every,
Speaker 20Everyone is gonna be impacted not just your neighborhood.
Speaker 6So,
Speaker 20And are they getting 50 units?
Speaker 6They're getting, they're most of those are actually only doing 20% because we don't have the funds to buy up full affordable. And so most of those are building way more than 50 units. Way, way more than 50 units on most of those. There's a
Speaker 20Total of two I where, or 2000 where
Speaker 6Yeah, there's, there's, there's probably being around the township and you'll see it over the next few years. There's where be where, I mean, I don't have 'em off the top of my head. We, we showed, we showed the, we we, if please, if you want to have another community meeting, we'd happy to go through the plan again. We brought it to that community meeting when we did and I'm happy to bring that map with me with my zoning officer and we can walk you through it again. But there's probably anywhere between 2020 500 units being built around town. So it's not a small number.
Speaker 20We need, we need the locations and the other, and the other thing is I've lived in Piscataway for order, please for 25 years. And it's funny because this mor this morning something hit me that I hadn't thought about in years. My son was hit by a car between Park Avenue and Highland Avenue on a Sunday afternoon after church because of the traffic coming through the, the, the neighborhood because of the, because not only because of the traffic, there was traffic on Highland, on on River Road, there's traffic from the churches. So, but for the grace of God, my son is still here, but you have other children in the area that are gonna be walking to school. He was on his way to his grandmother's house on Park Avenue. So you need to think about that when you vote.
Speaker 8Thank you.
Speaker 8Hi, good afternoon. My name is Esther. Neils my husband. It's John. We are at two 40 Highland Avenue. And it seems as if we are between a, a rock and a hard place and we only have to resort to what legal actions that are left. I understand that the state has put a lot on us here. I say us because the council supposedly represents us. So I see where the state has put a tremendous amount of pressure upon both all of us. But I, after listening, I'm looking at it from a legal perspective and I know the state and the courts and all have limited us to what we're able to do. Now, my question is, now I understand that the state required an X amount of housing, but they did not specifically say specific exactly where those developments should be. Correct.
Speaker 6We had to designate them and, and provide consent and agreements with developers within a period of probably two months. Okay. So to the extent that they just showed us a map of what was available, which was completely wrong, no, they didn't designate where the building should happen.
Speaker 8Okay. So my thinking is that the council or this township has decided the number of units and where the number of units will be located. Correct? I'm talking the distribution of the units
Speaker 14For the entire township. For the entire township,
Speaker 8Yeah. I mean for the, we are talking 50 50, but I'm saying wherever the
Speaker 14Units don't hold me to it. My, my memory here, there's gonna be x, y, Z units on South second Street, on the Piscataway develop dannel border, there will be three different developments on South Washington Avenue.
Speaker 8I'm sorry, mayor, excuse me. Maybe I wasn't clear. I was asking whether or not the township actually had to state that there will be x amounted units at this particular location and x amounted units at that particular location. So x, y, Z locations. Did, did township have to identify the number of units that would be go into those particular locations for the state? So
Speaker 6For the courts, so the, the township, I will say the didn't have the right to tell the developers you have to build X number of units. Okay, so what And so, I'm sorry. So for that reason, we had to work with each developer to see how much they would be able to build or would be willing to build. And to that extent, we literally ran out of space.
Speaker 8Okay. Now that leads to my other question. So other than the bottom line dollar amount that the developer is stand to gain, what other restrictions? I mean you that they had to identify, you had to work with the developers on how many units that each developer would put in whatever position that they, whatever property that they owned. Am I correct?
Speaker 6I mean we had to, we were negotiating for affordable units. Yes.
Speaker 8Okay, so I know you restating affordable 'cause that's what the state requires. Yes. That we were talking about affordable. I
Speaker 6Understand. Yeah. And we were trying to maximize
Speaker 8Money and all for the
Speaker 6State. We were trying to reduce the number of units around town, period. Right, okay. And so we were trying to negotiate to, to build as many affordable units in each location as we possibly,
Speaker 8Okay. What I'm trying to get at is the, the whys, the outcomes of the number, the enormous number of 50 units at that small property as opposed to more distribution of units. So in other words, if we cut other than the bottom line, I know that developer is not gonna want to deal with this other than what he can make on the bottom. It was originally 80 units proposed for And then I'm sorry, but I'm not talking about the, excuse me. I'm sorry, I'm, I have to stay focused on this one because I got so many things going around in my head. But I'm talking about the, I'm, I'm concerned with the distribution of the number of units in the different locations. And therefore I'm saying if the council is responsible, I mean the township is responsible for how many units who decided that it would be 50 there, 160 there, or did we just pull it out of a hat?
Speaker 6So part of these developments were already being planned and that's why 'cause we had to go to developers that were already intending to build. Okay. And so, so the township didn't have the right or leverage or authority to tell these people You had to build this many. So we had to go each to each builder. It's, excuse me, it's more complex than what you're trying to say. I know. You
Speaker 8Can just go, we have n it the number of
Speaker 6No. 'cause some of them were rezoned for the what was allowed. Right.
Speaker 8We're talking about rezoning this one to allow
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 850. But, but
Speaker 6We couldn't,
Speaker 8I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm trying to get an understanding
Speaker 6Here. Yeah,
Speaker 1And we're gonna wrap it up because I think it all ex well
Speaker 6Exceeded these, these conversations are like, I'd rather do it more of a community meeting so we can have more of a longer con longer conversation about it just because it is, it's not a simple answer. Right. And so definitely even even after the meeting we can talk, I'm happy to, we can run another community meeting about it. Yeah, but I just, it's not an easy answer.
Speaker 8I I understand that. But could I please have just a quick answer as to, other than the bottom line of the developers for 50 units, what are we as a township going to do to restrict the number of units there other than the 50 who negotiated the 50 who decided, I mean, I know you guys got 'em down. You said from 80 it was 80. Yeah, I know you came down from 80 to 50, but why can it not be down from 50 to 30 and and 25 or five because okay, all the other areas, why could we not put two or three other units over there? Well
Speaker 6That's how we,
Speaker 8The units on that small property.
Speaker 6But, but that's how we, that's how we got it down from 80. We went to the other developments and we pushed
Speaker 8Can we go back
Speaker 6Enough? We can't, we can't, we can't force them to do it. These are private land. It didn't private developers.
Speaker 8We tried.
Speaker 6Let's, let's talk about it further.
Speaker 8Thank you ma'am. Thank you.
Speaker 13Lemme just ask. I'm not gonna, hi, my name is Jeff Williams. I'm in 1 5 5 Park Avenue. I'm not gonna go into the statement I was gonna say, I just wanted to ask one question. Have we now, if this gets passed tonight, have we satisfied our obligation for affordable housing, senior housing throughout the throughout Piscataway or do we still need to look for more units elsewhere? Have we, whatever number was, whether it's 500, have we satisfied that number in the township, throughout the township or are we saying we still gotta look for another 400 spots somewhere?
Speaker 6We are.
Speaker 13It's easy. Que it is easy. Just yes or no. It's easy. It is easy either.
Speaker 6See, it's, it's never, it's never an easy question.
Speaker 13Well, well it's because you said we had a, we had to give a certain amount, certain
Speaker 6Number. Yes, yes we did. So did we. And
Speaker 13So find any numbers, yes or no? It's not, it's an easy question.
Speaker 6Yes. I'm it no, it's not an easy question because I'll tell you the thing is, at the end of the day, we have to meet the settlement compliance. And so in terms of the compliance of the settlement, we have another few steps to go. As in where these units are allocated. Yes. This will finalize it and this will meet our, this will continue to keep our builder's immunity remedies. But but in terms of like, is is the settlement done and tied in a bow? No, we have continued steps to go. I can, that's why nothing's ever an easy question. I know everybody's really trying to pin me down to an answer that you can catch me out on. But unfortunately, and this is why I'd love to have conversations with you so I can explain things because nothing's ever an easy answer unfortunately. Yeah,
Speaker 13But how many, how many, how many units were we mandated to have them Pesca, but that's what I'm asking for
Speaker 6539 affordable, which means that
Speaker 13How 5 39 I'm, and math is my weak subject, but I can't add subtract. How many do we have? Whether you're saying committed and I, I understand what you're saying. Do we have 539 units even committed? I could get, I understand all, all of them may not be built or all
Speaker 6Of them are allocated, designated and committed so far. Yes, they've all been submitted. There've been letters submitted by all the different locations. It's committing to the full number. That's why we're gonna keep this immunity.
Speaker 22Alright,
Speaker 1Thank you sir. Last call.
Speaker 22Good evening. My name is Gary Marker. I live at Fort Martin Lane. I've been in resident of this town tax paying resident for 55 years.
Speaker 22I would like to think that we have more common sense applied here. When I came here it was vast farmland. Farmland was converted to residential. Residential was dedicated to single family homes. Now we're having multiple drawing homes in the single family, family areas where the zoning was single families. Now we're putting in multiple families. We're going against the green. But yet all I hear is court, court, court, court. I don't care about court. I care about justice. I care about democracy. I care about people and, and what they wanna do with their lives. We have no, no self-direction here. We have, we're being beat down by the so-called court and we're cowtowing to a court. We're not saying I resist, I will not do this. You must, you must use some common sense here. You're voting in office. We can vote you out.
Speaker 23Good evening. My name is Tiffany Wiley. Grant. I live at two Salem Street. I've heard a ton of good points here, but one thing I haven't heard is anything about logistics. So if this does go through, I feel like we've, there's have been a lot of questions asked and not many questions answered. And
Speaker 23My question is, what are the logistics for the children? Having construction during the day is very disruptive to their education. I've seen it firsthand. It's very disruptive. How long is this going to take? How long does it take to build? What happens to the walkers who are leaving king school in Kack every day? What happens to the high school kids who are coming and picking up their siblings? Where is the safe pathway for them around all of this construction, around all of the people who are going to be constructing around all of the steel, all the things that are going to come in. How do the parents get back and forth to work on time when they have to drop off their kids? The buses can't get to king school. They sit in the line and wait. So how does this even look? I feel like there's no actual plan in place. The plan is just we don't have an option and that's it. So we're going to build, but we need to know what this looks like for our day to day
Speaker 6Counsel. Counsel to reiterate, this is a very preliminary first step. They would have to go to the planning zoning board in order to get approvals. We would work with the community in terms of, of comments and critiques. And then in terms of those concerns as the construction and the zoning and approvals and construction approvals go forward, you know, the community and you would bring those concerns up and we would work with our construction departments when they get construction permits. They can set restrictions and, and controls on how they construct. And we can work through all of that, that that happens on a regular basis. So it's definitely something where we're gonna continue to engage the community. That's been a, a directive of the council. And so in, in terms every concern you have, we'll continue to meet and we'll continue to try and address them throughout the
Speaker 7Process. And, and if I could just add that is part of the any zoning or planning. So the, any developer who decides to do this project and this one, or let's say this one decides not to do somebody else, they have to go before these boards. They have to present their plans. The professionals who work over there will have to approve them before they can move forward. So the, and the people who live in that neighborhood would get noticed at every meeting.
Speaker 23And I've seen what regularly looks like. But regularly also means that a person is regularly late to work or a person is a child is regular late to school because they have to try and make their way around. I'm just saying there are a lot of other dangers, but that's
Speaker 7What the planning and zoning is for. I
Speaker 23I understand that. Right. But what I'm, what I'm saying is that by that time decisions have been made, the development then comes, there's, there's nothing in advance for us to make any real decisions.
Speaker 7No. That's what those meetings at planning and zoning are before they start building. So they'll come before planning and zoning and the people in the neighborhood will be noticed about this. I
Speaker 23Understand. I'm just saying that notification is not the same thing as a choice.
Speaker 8When
Speaker 7Residents do get a say at those meetings and that helps the professionals, you'll
Speaker 10Be able to attend the
Speaker 7Planning is so when residents come to those meetings planning or zoning, it does help those boards to change things or to have developers work with residents. It's always important for residents to do that, to have their voice heard.
Speaker 10You mean like now? Yeah.
Speaker 8So can all of these people come to the planning and zoning boards and see what, hear what they're discussing and actually get, and when will they get to see a rendering of what this development will actually look like?
Speaker 10We come to one
Speaker 6In terms of where that process is. I don't know. We're in the very pre preliminary stages of this development. So I, once we have an idea of that, we can definitely tell the community and set up those meetings.
Speaker 1Excuse me sir, you have one public portion.
Speaker 10No, no, I understand that. I just wanted to add what she said.
Speaker 1No, no, no, no, no. You're out of water please.
Speaker 10I just need the understanding then I'm not gonna ask you a question sir. I understand that.
Speaker 1Anyone else at this point?
Speaker 24I'm ya 100, 122 over workload. So I have two points. The first point is can you please clarify what the builders RAM says about, so it seems like it's being a Trump card being imposed on us because if we don't go with that, we lose that status and we get more buildings. However, it's not unclear what's in the future. What if there's something else that can jeopardize that status And we'll again, then in loose of that and also at the same time, and it seems like because we want to keep that status, so regardless what coming out of those future planning zoning meetings, we have to comply because otherwise we lose that status. So that's the fourth point. Second point, it seems like we have to work with builders. So unless builder wants to build on a certain piece of land, otherwise we won't be able to build their certified as well. Right? But the builders of course, they would want to select a piece of land that give them maximum their profit. So what prevents them from choosing more recently like piece of land. 'cause what I'm heard say is like we are turning eight pieces of housing into 55 pieces of build of apartments. So of course they want to maximize that. So those are my two points. I and I appreciate clarification.
Speaker 6Yes. Yeah. So to try and simplify builder's remedies, ascension and builder's remedy immunity to the extent that if we lose the immunity and what the immunity is, is basically saying builders can't use a need for housing to try and basically violate or exempt themselves from zoning laws. Right now we can say we have zoning laws and you've got to be regulated by these zoning laws. What would happen is if, if the building the immunity disappears, we have zoning around town, that zoning basically gets thrown out the window. We could still try and implement it at, at our planning and zoning boards. However they could easily, they get a basically a presumption of the fact that there's a need in the town because we haven't met the need and therefore that, that they are allowed to get essentially whatever density that they feel they deem they want to get. And so, so essentially it wipes out our ability to control density, our ability called controlled type of housing, e everything. And so you, you know, in terms of the effect of not complying with this round, it is gonna, it would, it would dramatically affect continued development in town, not even on open space, on existing buildings. And yeah, I mean it's just, I can, I, we can talk about it further, but
Speaker 24Yeah, my point last sentence is like it's, it, it, it, I understand it is a good status key, but like what I understand today is like it's so easy to be taking away that why bother keeping that?
Speaker 6Yeah, I mean it's, you know, the problem is the legislature could have provided the, you know, provided, I mean they, it was used as leverage. I will tell you personally, and I dunno if I should say this, but the affordable housing legislation was backed by builders. I think they funded a lot of that affordable housing and to, you know, and so we are basically forced into this by probably money from builders and, and it, it's not, you know,
Speaker 14I, I'll save the attorney here. It, it was backed by the builders. You have a builder next door that's suing the town. You have high density lobbyists that are suing a town. And that's where we are today.
Speaker 7And council president, if I could just, Raj just
Speaker 1To, okay, hang on one second. Yeah, let's finish this public portion here and then we'll close the public portion and everyone will have a chance to speak.
Speaker 7Okay,
Speaker 17Thanks. My name's Craig Hensel. I live at One Day Street, Piscataway. I've been here for 50 years. One question I have, I am against the apartment building being built there, but I have one question. This industrial building that's living across the street from the town hall, it's been vacant for 15 years. What is the status of that? Why couldn't that be used by the builder to put apartments in that building? At and t Towers been empty for 15 years at t's moved out. All that has been empty. You're
Speaker 14Talking about
Speaker 17I-E-E-I-E-E does not own that building
Speaker 7Talking about that's a housing complex.
Speaker 6That's,
Speaker 7That's 1500. There's
Speaker 6Gonna be over, there's gonna be over 1500 units there. That's actually probably the biggest benefit donor to our auditor, right? So yes, so so it is, it is. When I keep telling you guys, we have looked everywhere and we've put houses and units everywhere we have and
Speaker 17Notify people say, listen, I ride around this neighborhood and I see empty buildings. Those empty buildings. We wanna talk about changing the commercial zone. You did it for single family homes, going to multi-family homes and you're putting apartments in there. The thing of it is, is use the properties that are sitting vacant and use those properties and do the best we can to take 'em down.
Speaker 6Yeah,
Speaker 17We didn't need, we didn't need to take down 30 acres of trees at POS Town Road to put warehousing in. And now I have all the wildlife living in my backyard.
Speaker 6So I would tell you, I don't know if the community, I don't know if the community remembers, but there was community meetings about the Ericsson property development way back when to, to design the town center. And the developer came out and got community feedback. I think the biggest with this affordable, with this affordable patient. So, so the, there
Speaker 1Were open forum meetings,
Speaker 6So there was open forum meetings about that. And, and we had come to a pretty nice, actually pretty design that it did include a decent amount of housing, but it would, it would've been a benefit to the community. And they actually created a nice town center because of this affordable housing. That plan got blown up and the density in that area now is through the roof. We are now fighting to even keep a semblance of a, of a town center in that area. It's not even gonna, but it's, it's, it's this, this legislation and this process has ruined, you know, everything. So, you know, we, it, and, and to get to, again, to repeat what I said before is we had a, a very small window to find and, and obtain consent letters from developers. So we had to find developers that were ready, willing, and able to build it.
Speaker 6It wasn't like, hey, this is empty space. We'll find someone to develop it within the next 10 years. That was the previous round that we weren't able to, we were able to do that in the previous round and that gave us a lot more opportunity this time we were required to get letters from developers to commit to building those units and it caused us a massive issue and it shortened the amount of open space we could even look at in, in terms of building it. It's, I I mean we can definitely have more conversations and I'd love, I'd love to have another community meeting where we can discuss it, but it just, we are between a rock and a hard place.
Speaker 1Okay, thank you. Thank you. The public portion is now closed and we'll now have comments from officials.
Speaker 7Thank you, council president. Just a, a couple of things that I wanted to, you know, talk out loud to that. The rest, not that, not in any way would I expect folks to be accepting of this because it would make me very upset as well. And I've lived here for 26 years and have put zero children through school and have paid my property taxes every year with zero children through school. This is not the position that this council has wanted to be on. We know that not only does the state have a housing crisis, it is a crisis across this country. And this last cycle out talking to residents as you guys have talked about. And, and the truth is, it is your vote. But as I spoke to residents in parts of town who shared your same desire for suburbia, it was also a conversation about the reality of, of folks being able to live in a decent place and to be able to afford it.
Speaker 7The requirement here, I think minimum the counselor said was somewhere around $120,000. That's a lot of money for most people to make, right? And when I was buying my home, my husband and I didn't make that money combined. So we, the issue here is much broader, and I understand the, the anger and anxiety, I'm not gonna be able to to assuage that. But there are folks that in addition to this housing crisis that our state has, and and it is across the country, there are lobbyists that lobby our elected officials in Trenton for high density housing. There are at least three that I'm aware of that do that. And so when you have people who are paid to lobby for high density housing, affordable housing, the politicians in Trenton are listening to that. And the formulas that have come about through these, these suits may or may not have been at the, the percentage without those lobbyists going down to Trenton to lobby for this.
Speaker 7As I knocked on people's doors and just talking about that there, they said some of the same things that somebody else here said. I, I, I left Newark, I left Plainfield to come to live in suburbia. I mean, I lived in Stokes Forest for a while, so this was a city for me when I moved here. But I will say this is that there's not anyone on this council that I know is saying, well, we don't make money off of this and we're not in bed with, with developers. Somebody sort of mentioned that, but that's just not the case. This is a very bad situation and it could be tremendously worse for the township as a whole. If we don't try to comply with this law with this round. Is there a possibility for some change? As the counselor said, maybe in a year there might be.
Speaker 7What I was really disheartened about and one of the residents here talked to me about it last time off the cuff said, I wish they had just built those eight houses. But I will tell you that there were people in that very neighborhood who fought the eight houses, correct. Who came out aggressively against the land owner. And so I'm not, listen, I'm not pointing fingers to anybody this is, but I'm not saying that this is what's happening because of that. What I'm trying to say is nobody likes the, the building, this and that. And again, I'm not trying to change your mind, I'm just trying to explain to you, Michelle grew up in this town. I I've lived here my entire life, okay? Sharon's lived here all her life, Frank, since 1970 something, same house. It's not fly by the city or pants. People just up here making a decision.
Speaker 7This is a bad decision to be, to have to make versus a catastrophic one for the entire town. And again, not trying to change your mind, your vote is your vote and that of course is what you have to do. But we do even have in this town, people who reside here, who work for organizations who lobby for high density and affordable housing. And it is a hard road that we have to, you know, walk on here to comply with the law. Understanding that as a council, most of us here, maybe not all of us would've never thought to fight for that particular formula. And Raj has fought for this town and that does not gonna make you feel any better. But he has done his due diligence to fight for every resident in this town. And that's all I wanna say. I'm not here to change your mind, just trying to give you an understanding of a very bad situation that this council has found themselves to be in right now based upon these laws. And I'm not, I'm not. And I, and again, there are lobbyists down in Trenton who do this for a living.
Speaker 7Thank you.
Speaker 11Anyone else?
Speaker 8I would just like to say I understand what the township is, what position they're in, but I also understand what my residents are saying. This is not their version of the suburbia that they dreamed of and, and looked at and bought homes in. And they have concerns about that. They have concerns about the aesthetics of their neighborhood with a multi-level structure. There. Sounds horrible. I wouldn't have wanted them on my street. They have concerns about kids walking down the street, going to school, even if it is senior housing. I just heard seniors are raising children too. So I I I don't, I think it doesn't matter what, what we say, what position we're in, these residents are not accepting of it. They don't want it. They have valid concerns. And I agree with them and I'm hoping, I'm hoping that if this does get passed, that, that they attend all of those planning and zoning meetings and make such an impact that will, there'll be a change that will be made hopefully more that they can, they can accept. But at this point I understand them and I support them and I urge the council to not pass the, not pass the second reading.
Speaker 11Anyone else?
Speaker 11I, I heard the residents and I I heard majority of them are not against affordable housing. Rather, it's a legitimate concern about the potential congestion. And I, I hear you and I, I know because my kids attended MLK and Kmax, so I understand the situation. It's not the affordable housing, but it's the location and the lot. So totally understand that. I hope that you will keep us accountable and make sure that the study is done and that we can address those issues because there are things that we can control and there are things we cannot control. So things we can control is the traffic. They are, you know, the, the township can work with the police department. We can do things to make the traffic and make that whole area safer and the traffic more bearable. So please keep us accountable.
Speaker 1And lastly, let me just say that we are definitely in a very difficult position here. Okay? It's not only your neighborhood that's gonna be affected. I admire you all for coming out and having the passion for your neighborhood, but it's gonna be many other neighborhoods in Piscataway that are gonna be affected too. So if we were to, every time we're gonna build something, the whole neighborhood comes out and says that we can't put it there. Where is that going to leave us? Okay. So I live, I've lived in Piscataway my entire life. The house where I live, I am having a, an apartment complex built at the end of my street complex. We're not talking 50 units here, we're talking hundreds of units at the end of my street. Okay? That's in South Plainfield, but that's for their affordable housing piece. Okay? And I'm also gonna be bordered by the new market school. So we're all being very, very affected and every, every neighborhood's going to be affected and they're gonna be by other schools too. So, you know, I understand your concern. I admire your passion. I said, but we're in a very, very difficult position here.
Speaker 1Okay? We're ready. Can I have a motion please?
Speaker 11I'll make a motion.
Speaker 1Can I have a second?
Speaker 2Second.
Speaker 1Mayor, can you please call the roll
Speaker 2Council member Cahill? Yes. Council member Carmichael?
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2Council member. Council member Espinosa? Yes. Council member Liebowitz? Yes. Council member Rashid?
Speaker 11Yes.
Speaker 2Council member Rin? Yes. Council President Lombardi?
Speaker 1Yes. And the ordinance passes. We'll now move to number 10. Announcements. And comments from a fifth. Excuse you order number 10 is announcements and comments from officials.
Speaker 7Thank you. Council Councilwoman, could you, I'd just like to say how awesome it was on National Night Out. There definitely were thousands of people out and the police department did a great job. I wanted to Zipline, but there wasn't enough time to Zipline 'cause the line was so long. And then I just want to remind folks we're coming up on the last couple of concerts in the park on Thursdays. Come out and enjoy them. They've been lovely. And lastly, just thanking all the residents who do come out to advocate for their part of the town because it is important.
Speaker 1Thank you. Councilwoman Carmichael.
Speaker 8I, I just wanna thank, thank everyone for coming out for National Night Out. It was wonderful. It was the best ever. I was a part of the committee and what was his name? Director TI did ask me to be a part of it. And I, and I'm proud that I was able to help make it what it was. So I was happy for that. So thank you everyone have a great weekend and I'm still pushing for my folks Ward three. Of course.
Speaker 1Councilman Espinoza.
Speaker 10Yeah, national Night Out was a good time. That's probably the most trucks that I've seen in National Night Out that it was, you mean food trucks? Yeah, food trucks. Yeah. So it was great. We had the zip lining, which I didn't do, the mechanical Bullard that I did not do. There was long lines by the time I, I went there. So I loved the soccer balls that actually were giving out to all the kids. That was a great moment. Good, good, good. What you call it, feeling that the kids were able to at least get those soccer balls on time for the National Night out. And also just another reminder that September 26th is the bike tour, Piscataway bike tour. So hoping to see some more registrations. You can go to the Piscataway website and register there. Thank you.
Speaker 1Councilwoman Leitz,
Speaker 2Just a reminder that the township concerts will be coming out on the 20th and the 27th. We have two left. They're great. They're really a lot of fun. People of all ages come out and dance and really enjoy the time and so we have to enjoy this rest of the summer. Thank you.
Speaker 1Thank you Councilwoman Rasheed, I just
Speaker 11Wanted everyone to know last few weeks of summer. Let's enjoy it and stay safe.
Speaker 14Councilman Uhrin. I have no comment tonight. Mayor, excuse me. A couple updates on some of the road projects. Love Guard, the contractor believes he will be finished or his company will be finished on sometime early October. We had an issue out there where one of the storm drain pipes actually collapsed, so thank God we're fixing it before we do the final paving patent avenue. We have a glitch out there. There was a gas line that now needs to be moved. So we're waiting for yeah c and g to go ahead and move that. And then we're still hoping that the contractor will have that finished up in October. The big project Centennial Avenue, we're expecting having substantial completion by the end of October the contractor will be finishing up the basic work out there. He's waiting for the upgrades from PSE and G for the power for the two new traffic upgrade of the two traffic lights at Knightsbridge and also by where the, the Kingsbridge is.
Speaker 14Once that happens then they'll go in and do final paving. They're looking to do that the first full week of of November. Weather permitting. We have couple other projects out there. DP W's expected to finish up on on Hamilton Boulevard out there within an by September we will be paving, we're doing the 88 new Ramps handicapped ramps on the balance of West Fourth to the Plainfield border. Once that's finished we're gonna go in and mill and pave to the plain field border on Rock Avenue. We're gonna be milling and paving from West fourth to West seventh. And there's a whole slew of other projects out there that get in the way. We're still waiting for the utility companies to come and start installing over Green Acres in preparation for the comfort station out there. So we've been waiting for over nine months now. So there, there's a backlog.
Speaker 14We're still waiting for at least 15 to 20 utility poles that have to be moved. Some that have been dating now two and a half years where they're out in the middle of the roadway and that's on Verizon. We're trying to work with Verizon to get that moved. Once that happens, public works will go in and mill and pave those streets there. I know one's on Glenwood and over there on Wayne Avenue and there's a couple other key ones. So we're, we're busy between the engineering department of public works to, and that doesn't include some of the mill paving that the county did on New Market Road and, and West Seventh. So within last couple of weeks. So that's pretty much with the update
Speaker 1Business Administrator.
Speaker 5Thank you. Well this evening I don't really have much to add other than we're continuing with day-to-day operations. Just fine tuning things and continue to work through the summer. Getting ready for, you know, getting ready for next year.
Speaker 1Okay, great. Counsel,
Speaker 6I think I've spoken up for the day, so no comments.
Speaker 1And again, I wanna commend everyone who put together National Night Out, our police department, our emergency services personnel, and all the volunteers that made it such an amazing evening here in Piscataway. Kudos to the new Market Fire Department for getting the kitty outta the sewer this week. I don't know if anybody saw that. Thank you for that. And continue or continued concerts. They have definitely been a good time. Hopefully they're not quite as hot as it was last week. So that's all I have to say at this point. We'll now move on to the agenda session for the upcoming September 1st, 2026 meeting. And on that agenda so far will be an ordinance second reading acquisition of right of way fee, simple easements for Holly Lane and Blackford Avenue Road improvements. And that will be open to the public and it will be a resolution adopting ordinance and also an ordinance on first reading, amending chapter 12, parks and Recreation, establishing hours for pickleball courts at Durham Park. We did have someone here at one of the other meetings sharing a concern about the hours of the people playing pickleball. So I'm glad to see that we are going to do something for them over at Durham Park. And that will be an adopting ordinance. Number 12. We will now open to the public for remote attendees.
Speaker 1Council president, there are no remote attendees with their hand raise regarding this agenda item. We're closing the remote portion and now we'll open to the public. For anybody in person that anyone wants to speak on any matters, please come now.
Speaker 3I guess I'm showing up a lot. It just shows the frustration in government. But anyway, I'm gonna start with few things. Bert, your name please and address Tik Patel, 29 Redwood Road. I have few comments as it relates to taxes. So the people who are 60 and over, pretty much they are freeze and they don't pay much taxes through abatement. Kids who are under 25 and under, they're pretty much drowning in student debt and car loans. So who is actually paying taxes? That's number one. The second thing is if, if there is any chart, because I'm sure government, people in government likes acronyms and charts and whatnot. In last three years, the taxation has gone up by 35% or more has the income gone up by 35%. So that means you are basically drowning people and and and basically taking money away from their savings and capital improvement.
Speaker 3It gets worse. I own homes and I believed in capital when I came to this country. Let me tell you this. My grandfather was a producer. My father was a producer, I'm a producer, okay? And despite of all this through the taxation, basically the way the government is taking money away from citizen is very crafty. You're draining our savings, you're draining our future retirements through all these creative ways and saying they're saving taxes. But it's not. I own two, I own my personal home, which was paid for, and I own two additional rental homes. When you're talking about crisis in affordability, two of my tenants who are working, I dunno whether they work in Pisca or wherever, they haven't paid rent for past two months. There is a $13,000. So if you are talking about progress, if you're talking about economic development, authority and all this kind of stuff, they can't even pay rent.
Speaker 3What kind of economy are we going to create? And then when you're collecting all these taxes, by the way, if you go on to Washington Avenue and the point is filled with algae, is this the government that we should look for collecting 8,000 in taxes, 8,000. Seriously gimme half of the money back. I'll do a better job than what you guys are doing and your builders are doing. And put those lobbyists into military organization, institutions. They don't belong there. They're just talkers And, and I understand all these legal framework and shenanigans that have been produced by the state today. All of these guys produce absolutely nothing of value. And don't take me, you as a person, I'm gonna go one by one of the, when I came to America, everybody was a producer. I ask all of you guys who are sitting in charge, do you produce or do you trade somebody else's good? What do we produce in this town today that we can trade with? Other town produced telco Yeah. Is gone. There was a data center that is gone. We have 2 million plus square feet. That is the design company that is gone. HP is gone. What are you bringing in with all this tax money? Homeless people, affordable crisis that you are manufacturing and then you are using state. Who is state? Some corrupt lawyers in Trenton.
Speaker 3Do you guys ammunition? Do you guys look at ledgers? What it's telling you, if the price is telling you that we can't afford it, you still go through green light. If I'm a police, if I'm driving a car and if I'm driving in a 50 miles, driving 70, he is going to gimme a ticket. There is no economic ticket. You are incentivizing
Speaker 1This. Thank you.
Speaker 25These are your laws.
Speaker 1Anyone else? Seeing none? The public portion is now closed. Can I have an offer to adjourn? Offer Second. Have a second. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening and a safe drive home. Have a good night.