HomeMy Public PortalAbout07-03-01a
The Agenda Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the Borough of
Carteret preceding the Regular Meeting, March 13, 2007 was held
on Thursday, March 1,2007,5:00 P.M., Municipal Court, Police
Facility, 230 Roosevelt Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey.
The following were noted present:
Mayor Daniel J. Reiman
Councilmember Vincent Bellino
" Jorge Diaz
" Randy Krum
" Susan Naples
" Ronald G. Rios
" Joseph W. Sitarz
Noted Absent was Borough Attomey Robert Bergen.
Also noted present was John Jennings and Marty Truscott from
T &M Associates and Victor fi'om Beacon Planning
The 2007 Annual Notice was mailed to The Home News Tribune,
The Star Ledger and posted on the Bulletin Board on December
27,2006
At approximately 5:01 P.M., Borough AttomeyRobert Bergen was
noted present.
The meeting was opened with a minute of silent prayer and the
Pledge of Allegiance led by Mayor Daniel 1. Reiman.
~IARQI 1, 2007
AGE7IDA MEETING
March 1, 2007
PRESENI'
SfAWfENl' OF
MEEl'ING NOnCE
Borough Attorney
Robert Bergen Present
Minute of Silent Praye.
/Pledge of Allegiance
MARaI 1, 2007
Minutes for
Approval
Presentations
Public Hearing
Held
Proclamation
RESOLUl'IONS
Consent Agenda
RESOLUITON #fJ7-78
"Approving the 2007
-2008 CDBG Program"
RESOLUl'ION #fJ7-79
"Amendment to the 2007
Temporary Budget"
February 1& 15,2007.
Vincent Manetta.
Transit Village Plan - Mayor Reiman explained that they are
holding off on the Public Hearing because when it was published
in The Home News Tribune, inadvertently, it said the hearing
would be held at 61 Cooke Avenue instead of the Municipal Court
so this will give the public extra time to arrive.
Carteret Disabilities Awareness Day.
Resolutions #2, #3, #4, #8, #13 and #14 were introduced by the
Mayor and Referred to the Council for action.
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Rios and Diaz
RESOLUTION #07-78
"Approving the 2007-2008 CDBG Program"
RESOLUTION #07-79
"Amendment to the 2007 Temporary Budget"
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MARm 1, 2007
RESOLUTION #07-80
"Appointment to the Community Development Board/Middlesex
County Housing and Community Development Committee"
RESOLUTION #07-83
"Certifying Dennis McFadden - Police Captain.
RESOLUITON #fJ7-80
"Appointment to the
Conmmity
DevelopI1ent Board/
Middlesex County
Housing and
Conmmity Develop-
ment Comnittee"
RESOLUl'ION #fJ7-81
''Directing the
Redevelopment Agency
Acquire 43-45 and
47 Washington Avenue'
RESOLUITON #fJ7-82
"Introduction of the
2007 Local Mtmicipal
Budget"
(See Clerk's Note)
RESOLUl'ION #fJ7-83
"Certifying Dennis
McFadden-Police
Captain"
RESOLUTION #07-81
"Directing the Redevelopment Agency Acquire 43-45 and 47
Washington Avenue.
RESOLUTION #07-82
"Introduction of the 2007 Local Municipal Budget"
Clerk's Note-
This Resolution was not received.
were Adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers
Bellino, Diaz, Krum, Naples, Rios and Sitarz voted in the
Affirmative.
Adopted
List of bills properly audited and signed.
BilL LISf
The Municipal Clerk said there was no List of Bills.
ABC License Transfer - #1201-33-027-004, from Round the Clock
Plaza Foods, Inc. to Mama Maria ofCarteret, LLC.
APPLICATIONS
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Diaz and Naples and
unanimous affirmative vote of the full Council present, the
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MARm 1, 2007
APPLICATIONS
Cont:
REPORl'S
BUSINESS 10 BE
ADDED
MA'ITERS FOR
DISCUSSION
Appointment-
Mtmicipal Judge
Application for ABC License Transfer from Round the Clock
Plaza Foods, Inc. to Mama Maria of Carteret, LLC was approved.
Clerk's Office - February 2007.
BUSINESS TO BE ADDED:
Councilmember Bellino spoke about underground wiring at the
C.C. Complex.
Mayor Reiman spoke about replacing lamps.
Councilmember Rios spoke about putting a resolution on for a new
employee.
Councilmember Sitarz had no business to discuss at this time.
Councilmember Naples spoke about several injuries and illnesses
in the Buildings and Grounds Department in the last few weeks
which will make the workload run lean and they will have to share
the departments.
Councilmember Krum said he and the Mayor will be meeting with
the Career and Volunteer Firemen soon.
Councilmember Diaz had no business to be discussed at this time.
MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION:
Appointment - Municipal Judge.
Mayor Reiman said the Judge, Alan Comba, will be appointed at
the next Council Meeting.
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MARm 1, 2007
Mayor Reiman said that before he was going to start his Public
Hearing on the Transit Village Plan he explained that something
new was included in our 2007 Rules of Council, which took effect
January 7, 2007. It is a sign-in book for anyone that will be
speaking during the public session. They will have to sign their
name, address and topic of discussion.
Mayor Reiman, Re:
Transit Village
Plan
Mayor Reiman then went on to say that they would be starting
their Transit Plan Hearing and that there were representatives from
T&M Associates and Beacon Planning and Don Jennings the
Principle Planner from T&M Associates. He said they received a
Smart Growth Grant from the DCA back in 2004 and explained
that there are two (2) patis to the study, one was to look at the
possible designation of the waterfi'ont development Carteret
Landings, Transit Village and the other was part of the study,
handled by Beacon that had to do with the possibility of a marina
and/or felTY terminal and he asked John Jennings to give a brief
summation of the plan.
PUBLIC HEARING
Transit Village
Plan"
John Jennings then began giving his presentation. He introduced
Matiy Truscott fi'om T&M Associates and Victor F. from Beacon
Planning who put together a repOli. He said he had some hand outs
to go over very briefly showing what is in the report and he also
has some for the public. He explained that this is a Smati Growth
Grant that started in 2004 and they completed the study as part of
the formal process and the Council has to have a Public Hearing
and also an Adoption of the plan in order to be able to close out the
Smart Growth Grant. Basically what they did was look at the
existing conditions out there and the population of the area, the
CUlTent approvals, as well as potential future development in the,
area, so they have employed all the attributes. They looked aUhe
redevelopment zones and where the Transit Village and the FelTY
Terminal are proposed is basically on the Chrome site, a little bit
north of the Veterans Park and as part of the Transit Village
application it is critical to look at growth and populations within a
quatier mile and a half mile as being accessible by foot or bicycle
to the Ferry Terminal. The other elements of the plan they looked
at were signage to access the tem1inal and improving
bicycle/pedestrian access and create bicycle/pedestrian quarters to
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MARm 1, 2007
Transit Village
Plan Cont:
the facility. We came up with a group of recommendations for the
Transit Village, which included looking at potential shuttle or
jitney service to the ferry tem1inal, developing a way finding sign
program, asking the Borough to setup a Transit Village Task
Force, at some point and also encouraging the Borough to adopt
Land Use and Zoning regulations that would encourage compact
development, mixed use development around the ferry tem1inal,
creating the bicycle and pedestrian system which is included and
shown on this map as well. Discussing parking and the needs for
shared parking in Transit Villages. Discussing everything from the
planning aspects of site and building design, the streetscape
approach to it and community access in approving community
places with the park and potential marina going in there. He said
we already have some type of community improvements going on
and went on to say they looked at potential of light rail access
explaining that there are a series oflight rail lines in the area and at
this point there may be some logistical problems with the condition
of the rail bed, with the conditions that Comail or (inaudible)
service uses, if they use the service at all, that we would have to
look at feasible station locations and would have to have an
agreement on working with the county as well as New Jersey
Transit. He said in order to discuss and come up with a feasibility
of that they looked at previous felTY studies and this is where
Victor's group in Beacon Planning and Consulting prepared a
couple of reports that are also part of the Smart Growth Grant, to
come up with, looking at the 1996 study that was done for the POli
Authority exploring the possibilities of ferry service fi'om different
areas in Middlesex County saying this was based on the 1990
Census and Beacon's report goes beyond that, because it included
the 2000 Census, but, there has also been changes since 2000 with
the designation of additional redevelopment areas in the Borough,
as well as active constmction going on with Meridian and Kaplan
and others in the area, so overall the Beacon Study highlighted
changes and increases that could be anticipated in ridership based
on the 2000 census, instead of just the 1990 census and we feel that
there be even more growth attributable to the type of permanent
activity we have seen in Carteret over the last five (5) years.
Overall what we are looking to do is have a little discussion on the
division plan and the study that was put together and also have an
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MARm 1, 2007
adoption of what was put together and presented as a report. If
there are public comments and so forth, those would be included
with the submission and then would be able to be transmited to the
Office of Smali Growth. He said they put a lot of work together
showing where the ferry terminal would be, coming up with
patterns of access fi'om different developments and from different
residential areas in the Borough and there would also be additional
ridership from other areas, Woodbridge or other towns near by, in
relation to access to Manhattan or Staten Island, depending on
where the ferry does really end up going. There is so much
congestion on the Turnpike and so forth and this would be an
attractive altemative for transit users, explaining that Beacon's
study did go into quite a lot of detail with that and they received
over 850 or 900 responses fi'om residents, that did gave us an idea
about the great amount of interest in ferry service and also that
there is in the New Jersey DOT a Capital Improvement Program,
money for the terminal. He explained that the main steps they
would have to go through in order to get the terminal up and
running is to have an operator that wants to come in and recognize
that this is a viable option and a great area to establish a felTY
service.
Transit Village
Plan Cont:
Mayor Reiman said we are putting our dollars behind the ferry
explaining that we have had several meetings with the DOT. He
spoke briefly on this.
Council President Rios referred to page 3, to the shuttle, asking if
that would be within the Borough or a cooperative effort with
other towns such as Woodbridge.
John Jennings said it could be a cooperative effort if it made sense
to serve Woodbridge as well.
Councilmember Bellino questioned if when talking about total
growth, does that include school age children.
John Jennings said it did.
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MARm I, 2007
Transit Village
Plan Cont:
Councilmember Bellino asked what percent.
Mayor Reiman said we did not have that information now and
explained that some would be age restricted units.
Attorney Bergen said a Rutgers Study shows two (2) children per
one hundred (100) people.
Councilmember Bellino asked ifthere was a traffic study.
John Jennings said they will put one together.
Councilmember Sitarz asked where the parking for the ferry
service will be.
John Jelmings said he hopes the people will walk or shuttle over.
Mayor Reiman said we will offer a fi'ee jitney service and the
terminal will have 300 to 400 parking spaces.
Councilmember Naples asked if there will be bike and walk units.
John Jennings said there would.
Councilrnember Naples mentioned South Amboy.
John Jennings said he thought South Amboy was amazed on the
amount of ridership they got based on the amount of population
increase that they saw.
Councilmember Naples then asked if nine hundred (900) Carteret
residents responded to the survey.
Victor said they did.
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MAROl 1, 2007
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Diaz and Krum and
unanimous affirmative vote of the full council present, this meeting
was opened for Public Discussion.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Mayor Reiman asked if there was any questions on the Transit
Village.
Susan Gaydos, 78 Hermann Street, spoke. She asked if there was
2800 units and ifthey were apartments, townhouses and condos.
Susan Gaydos
Mayor Reiman said it was conceptually only a prelimary concept.
Nothing has been approved yet.
Susan Gaydos said she felt that it may be a lot for Carteret to
handle.
Mayor Reiman explained that our intent is to eliminate heavy
industrial that either we put wharehouses or chemical plants back
on the water front or we clean up the chemicals and make it
residential because we cannot leave the area vacant.
Susan Gaydos said her concem is that it will be Section 8.
Mayor Reiman told her that the County is no longer issuing
subsidized vouchers for housing and the plan is to build
townhouses, condos and brownstones at a half a million dollars
each . He also explained that in Meridian Square there is zero
subsidized housing and only nine (9) school age children in over
six (6) years and they pay in excess of $500,000.00 a year in
taxes. He went on to explain that this is exactly what kind of
developments they want, where they pay more than their share of
taxes and there are very little school age children.
Susan Gaydos said she feels it would have been better to build a
school.
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MARaI 1, 2007
PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Cont:
Barbara Gaydos
Mayor Reiman said he would like to have seen that but
unfo11unately GovelTuuent Agencies do not have the funds to
spend like a private developer.
Mrs. Barbara Gaydos spoke. She said she read that there was 400
Section 8's and 180 on Welfare.
Mayor Reiman told her that was not the cun'ent numbers.
Barbara Gaydos said a man told her there was seventy nine (79)
school age children in Meridian.
Mayor Reiman said he was wrong.
Susan Gaydos said there should be a public vote on this issue.
Mayor Reiman told her that there can be no referendum on an issue
like this. He explained that his had been discussed for about three
(3) or four (4) years and will not happen over night and he feels
this is a good thing for Carteret. He explained that before the
ground breaks on this there will be many Public Hearings.
Barbara Gaydos also said that the 5:00 P.M. meetings make it hard
for people to attend and suggested to put the Order of Business on
the web site.
Mayor Reiman then asked John Jennings what the next step was
going to be.
John Jennings said the next step would be to accept the report and
adopt it and then transmit it to the Office of Safe Planning and the
Office of Sma11 Growth. He said the reports that have already been
prepared.
Mayor Reiman said he wanted to make a point to the public and
the Council, that this is not approving anything in terms of
residential growth or commercial growth that those studies and
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MARaI 1, 2007
plans were done years ago and have been on the books since 2001,
2002 and 2003. He said this has only to do with the Transit Village
Review and Study that T&M and Beacon Planning had done,
explaining we are talking about a Ferry Terminal, Jitney Selvice a
Malina and waterfront uses along the older abandoned industrial
tracks and that at this point we are not authorizing a developer but
we are simply accepting the (inaudible) that was submitted to us
and forwarding to the DCA, a finalized report and finalized grant,
that the DCA provides Carteret (inaudible) so that we can get
reimbursed.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Cont:
John Jennings then requested that the Public Portion be closed.
Upon MMS&C by Councilrnembers Rios and Diaz and unanimous
affirmative vote of the full Council present, the Public Portion of
this meeting was Closed.
PUBLIC POlITION
CIDSFll
Mayor Reiman then made a motion to accept the Reports from
T &M and Beacon Planning and forward the approval to the DCA.
RESOLUTION #07-84
Motion Made to
Accept Reports from
T&M and Beacon
Planning
RESOLUITON #fJ7-84
"A=epting the
Borough of Carteret
Transit Village
Plan"
Resolution #07-84 was introduced by the Mayor and refelTed to the
Council for action.
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Krum and Naples
"Accepting the Borough of Carteret Transit Village Plan"
was Adopted. Upon individual roll call vote Councilmembers
Bellino, Diaz, Krum, Naples, Rios and Sitarz voted in the
Affirmative.
Adopted
Upon MMS&C by Councilrnembers Sitarz and Rios the meeting
was opened for Public Discussion on regular Agenda Items.
Public Discussion
Re: Regular Agenda
Items
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MARm 1, 2007
Public Discussion, Re:
Regular Agenda Items
Cont:
Susan Gaydos
Susan Gaydos asked when Walgreen's will be paved.
h Mayor Reiman said they have a temporary certificate of occupancy
and in the spring time they will put on a top coat of paving.
Susan Gaydos said there are lights out on the bridge and said the
traffic light on Frederick and Roosevelt is longer and there are cars
backed up.
Mayor Reiman said that is a county light and he will ask our
engineer to look at it.
Susan Gaydos asked about Medwick Park and the arsenic.
Mayor Reiman said they are continuing to request infOlmation on
this and all the reports are on file with our Board of Health. He
said our last discussion with them shows we are no where near as
contaminated as we originally thought and before they can do
anything they have to collect soil samples and they have to submit
a repOli.
Mayor Reiman said they have a new County Inspector on board to
check the food establishments.
Susan Gaydos said the Chinese restaurant in West Carteret is still
dirty.
Mayor Reiman told her they were selved violations.
Susan Gaydos said in Quick Check, Quick and Easy, the coolers
were shut off and some of the stores need their food updated and
they are also selling adult magazines.
The Mayor suggested she say something to them as a consumer
and also let the COlTect town officials know.
Barbara Gaydos asked if the sewer pipes by McDonalds had
anything to do with the pump station.
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MARm 1, 2007
Mayor Reiman said it has to do with the Turnpike improvements
not the pump station.
Public Discussion
Cont:
Councilrnember Sitarz said it is only for rain water.
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Rios and Sitarz and
unanimous affilmative vote of the full Council present, the public
portion was closed.
Public Portion
Closed
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Rios and Sitar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Before the "all in favor" Mayor Reiman intenupted to say that he
wanted to go officially on record announcing that the Middlesex
County Board of Freeholders will be voting in about an hour to
fund an additional $500,000.00, in Capital Improvement, in
Carteret Civic Center Parks Project, which will allow us to award
the entire amount. He said Council President Rios and Councilman
Diaz will be going there to pick up the check.
Mayor Reiman
.. ..and unanimous affirmative vote of the full Councilmembers
present, this meeting was adjoumed at approximately 5:45 P.M.
ADJOURNFll
Respectfu,Uy submitted,
U~r I
KRTHLEEN M. BARNEY
Municipal Clerk
KMB/lr
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