Old Bridge Township, New Jersey - March 12, 2001 Minutes

Old Bridge Township Council

Combined Meeting

March 12, 2001

A Combined Meeting of the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge was held on March 12, 2001 in the Municipal Complex. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by President Maher who invited all to participate in a salute to the flag which was followed by a short prayer.

Deputy Clerk, Stella Ward, announced that the meeting had been advertised in the Home News & Tribune pursuant to Section 5 of the Open Public Meetings Act and that the next open public meeting of the council will be held on March 19, 2001 at 7:00 p.m.

Roll call by Deputy Clerk Ward showed the following members present: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, President Maher. Councilman Testino arrived at

7:20 p.m. Councilman Redmond and Councilwoman Marinaccio were absent.

No. 122 Bill List.

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the Business Administrator has the responsibility of approving all bills and vouchers subject to preaudit and control; and

WHEREAS, the Director of Finance is responsible for the preaudit, the disbursement of all monies and the control over all expenditures to ensure that the budget appropriations are not exceeded; and

WHEREAS, the Finance Committee of the Township Council has satisfied themselves in respect to the bill listing of March 12, 2001 that there exists a detailed bill or voucher supporting each payment and there is indication that goods or services have been received or rendered.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge that the bill listing of March 12, 2001 as approved by the Business Administrator after preaudit and control by the Director of Finance and after review by the Finance Committee be spread on the minutes in the amount of $8,895,920.13 (Accounts Payable).

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Cucchiara and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilmen Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 123 Bill List

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the Business Administrator has the responsibility of approving all bills and vouchers subject to preaudit and control; and

WHEREAS, the Director of Finance is responsible for the preaudit, the disbursement of all monies and the control over all expenditures to ensure that the budget appropriations are not exceeded; and

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Cucchiara and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilmen Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 124 Bill List. Denied

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the Business Administrator has the responsibility of approving all bills and vouchers subject to preaudit and control; and

WHEREAS, the Director of Finance is responsible for the preaudit, the disbursement of all monies and the control over all expenditures to ensure that the budget appropriations are not exceeded; and

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Cucchiara and so denied on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Sohor.

NAYS: Councilmen Greene, Hoff, President Maher.

ABSENT: Councilmen Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

Report of the Clerk.

MONTHLY REPORT OF COLLECTIONS OF ROSE-MARIE SARACINO, CLERK

The following represents the collections I have made during the month of February 2001:

DOGS:
1001-2100 8,483.00

CATS:
472-473 14.00

LICENSE:

VENDING:

Snack - $5.00 each
#54-55 Blonder & Tongue 10.00
56 Summerhill Nursing Home 5.00
57-58 After Dark 10.00
59 Mystic Bulk Carriers 5.00
60-65 Full Time Vending 30.00
66-72 Drug Emporium 35.00

Soda -$10.00
#11-15 Blonder & Tongue 50.00
16 Summerhill Nursing Home 10.00
17 Mystic Bulk Carriers 10.00
18-30 Full Time Vending 130.00
31-36 Pepsi 60.00

Amusement - $25.00 each
#118-119 VOIDED
120-122 Friendly Sons 75.00

Food - $25.00
#3-4 Blonder & Tongue 50.00

Used Car
#285 Zippo's Car Stereo 350.00
#286 Cheesequake Auto Sales 350.00
#287 Stream Motors 350.00

Hot Dog
Don Dogs - 2 permit locations 100.00

1,630.00

BINGO/RAFFLE
RA - 42-01 NJ Jewish Home for the Aged (Add'l) 10.00
RA - 43-01 Congregation Beth Ohr n/c
RA - 44-01 St. Ambrose Combined Societies 50.00
RA - 45-01 Bayshore American Hellenic Association 20.00
RA - 46-01 Applegate School PTO 10.00
RA - 47-01 St Ambrose Combined Societies n/c
RA - 48-01 Most Holy Redeemer 10.00
RA - 49-01 St. Ambrose Home School n/c

100.00

Map
Street Map 5.00

Liquor License
Person to Person Trf Application (Magoo's) 4.00

SEARCH
4-01 10.00

MISCELLANEOUS:
Photocopies 40.59

Total: $10,286.59

Motion

to accept the Report of the Clerk made by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Cucchiara and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilman Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

Report of the Attorney.

Attorney Ruggierio: As you know the bulk of our work has been dedicated to the Oakwood case which is under a significant schedule. We have identified 543 items of defects or incomplete items that the defendants (the developers and owners) are required to respond to. The date is April 8. I have had a marathon meeting on the Sommers case although I cannot report a settlement of that matter. We are making progress. We will distribute to the council a letter from the Attorney General's office indicating that they are still working on the opinion relating to Cheesequake Dam. This will be forwarded shortly. We will check with them in two weeks.

Councilman Hoff: Is the engineering, inspection and punch list for Oakwood being done in-house?

Attorney Ruggierio: We have a comprehensive report from our engineering department listing 400 items plus environmental issues totaling 543.

Councilman Hoff: This might require more documentation if we have to go to court.

Attorney Ruggierio: I will consult with Mr. Iglesias and the Mayor about the extent to which we will need the engineering department to do extra work. This may require us to bring in observers, people to take pictures of cracked curbs, etc.

Councilman Hoff: I am confident in what you are doing.

Motion

to accept the Report of the Attorney made by Councilman Hoff, seconded by Councilman Butler and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilman Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilmen Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

Guest - Thomas Sheehan.

President Maher: In addition to the Town Centre, I want you to be prepared to discussing down zoning and conservation areas fitting into other areas of the township.

Mr. Sheehan: I have focused in the last few days on the Town Centre zone text which I received on the 7th so that I could respond in depth to any questions. You may not be aware that in the Master Plan Land Use element which was adopted in July 2000, there were recommendations within that element to do just that. That is to say to significantly reduce the intensity of residential land use development throughout the municipality in many of the presently existing residential zones - down zoning them by at least one zone, if not more.

One of the strengths of the Town Centre district provides you with a mechanism to encourage not just down zoning, but to unload residential intensity in the outer zones by the transfer of density provision with the Town Centre zone. There are three different alternatives in the Town Centre zone which, if built into the entire ordinance, would enable a one-for-one transfer of units out of the other sections of the municipality into one of the Town Centre residential component zones on a one-to-one basis which further advances your concern about down zoning.

President Maher: There was a memo regarding conservation areas in Somerset County. Are your familiar with towns designating these conservation's areas?

Mr. Sheehan: When we render the Master Plan of Old Bridge to a law document, one of the things that we have done is create stream corridors throughout the municipalities that utilizes the center line of all existing streams that can be documented. We have that documentation either through a natural resource inventory or through the NJDEP. We will create a 100 foot wide stream corridor conservation zone on either side of the center line of the stream. That is something that is recognized as a realistic tool for stream corridor preservation. It is defensible from council's position in terms of having a finite empiric base upon which to base the zoning concept. The key is having an adequate empiric base which you have in your municipality to substantiate the zones. When it is your turn to take the Master Plan which is nothing more than a grand wish list plan and make it law at the zoning level, those precepts have been enunciated and will be followed through. We will begin in the near future to inundate the planning board with copies of chapters of the actual zoning text. Unfortunately, what they are going to be getting in the near future is not really interesting. It is procedures that have to come from statutory language required by the zoning and planning boards, definitions, conditional use standards, etc.

We are thinking about down zoning, and we have effectuated that in the master plan, and that has to be made a law.

President Maher: Are you using the term down zoning and conservation areas as one and the same? Bedminster designated large pockets of land as conservation areas - one unit per six acres. They increased their density from one unit per two acres, and they designated the terminology "conservation areas". Is there an opportunity for us to do this in Old Bridge?

Mr. Sheehan: Yes there is. In the Master Plan document we have created ARC 1, ARC 2 up to ARC 6 zones (A - Agricultural, R - Recreational and C- Conservation zones) where we acknowledge that there are lands that should be kept agricultural, etc. It has been adopted by the planning board in the Master Plan which gives us the ability to put this into the zoning ordinance. The strength of the Town Centre zone as published on November 1 is a sound concept of concentric circle planning where you have the most intense concept in the center with the concentric circles around with diminishing intensity as it flows out from the center. This building will be the center. There are two zones around it of commercial endeavor; surrounding that there are three zones of residential endeavor. Then you move out into the existing R-15, R-40, R-80 and the new ARC 2. There are some areas of disagreement between me and Sam Rizzo with respect to methodology in terms of key concepts. There are certain zones where we are still not comfortable having them in the Town Centre (R-15 on Cottrell Road or the R-80 or R-40 sections.) The key is to get you a Town Centre designation vis a vis the state plan, and Sam Rizzo is right on point with that. I would like to have the opportunity to sit down with Sam and go through the document to exchange ideas to resolve our technical differences. I would request a month to do this.

President Maher: Some of the council is concerned with the influx of cars around the Town Centre and the lower density of the residential housing. It will be a one-for-one swap. What we will be putting into the Town Centre concept, we will be subtracting from other areas. With respect to parking, do you have any concerns with what you reviewed?

Mr. Sheehan: There are two items of disagreement. I believe that Sam and I have to talk about two issues. As it relates to the parking ratio he suggests a ratio of one space per 400 square feet. That is somewhat low for the nature of the commercial uses that are proposed to be permitted within the Town Centre zone. I compared that to the planning recommendations of the Institute of Transportation Engineers which is the document for the ordinance relating to parking ratios. While there are uses that it will accommodate, it would not accommodate a quality restaurant or a supermarket, etc. The concept of shared parking is built into the ordinance. There are those that have peak parking demands differing in time over the course of the day from other commercial uses. You can share that parking supply. There has to be cross-leases or cross-easements set up in the ordinance as a mandate to be sure it works. There has to be maximum walk distance.

The other issue with respect to parking relates to Rt. 516 and Cottrell Road. I have serious reservations about parking on Rt. 516 given the cross sectional design and design speed of the improvements laid out in this document. With a road with a design speed of 35 mph, even if it is posted at 25 mph with a through lane on a designated county collector road, at those speeds at those hours of volumes, do we want to introduce pedestrian conflict with those through movements? That as to be resolved. He has sound reasons why he believes this is a viable design. I have some serious reservations. An open mind is needed here; I need to see where he is coming from with that. I think that with respect to Cottrell Road, given the same design constraints but without the volumes, there may be a reasonable argument that can be made for that design. Cottrell Road is a county road, and we need to know the position of the county planning board and legal counsel on this road in terms of the deliberate liability exposure by having those volumes of roads at that design speed encouraging pedestrian movements.

While I don't believe that I am prepared to make a professional statement, I am prepared to say that I need to be convinced as to the design rationale that supports that roadway design with on-street parking.

President Maher: Mr. Rizzo, can you schedule some time with Mr. Sheehan within the next thirty days?

Mr. Rizzo: We can meet within the next thirty days to discuss these items, but that depends on what we hope to accomplish. If we are going to adjust design language, that would be fine. If Mr. Sheehan and I are to try to come to an agreement in thirty days, that is not going to happen. I have been in the business for over thirty years, and so has Mr. Sheehan. There is no real answer to anything. You have to base it on your professional background and all your experiences. Two people can be given the same design project and come up with different ways of solving it. There are a lot of items that we can resolve. There are others that we cannot, i.e., the parking issues. We have seen a number of cases where they don't put the parking on the street, the road becomes a highway, and there is no town centre. That is the heart of this. If we don't do the on-street parking, we need another way of slowing down the traffic so that we can have a town centre. We encourage pedestrians crossing the street. You can find a parking standard for a hardware store, an ice cream store, a supermarket, but you cannot find one for a downtown. There is nothing in the books that we can find. All traffic engineers seem to agree that the No. 4 town centre is lower, but how much, no one knows because no one has done the study. Because there is not a definite answer, we looked at other towns. That is where we came up with the number 400, which is approximately what we have here at the complex. I am not sure we can solve our philosophical differences in thirty days. I respect Mr. Sheehan's opinion on this, and there are things that he will help us out with. If the marching orders are to come to an agreement, I don't think that is possible.

President Maher: We want you to come to a closer agreement. Mr. Sheehan is working on the zoning for the entire township, and he only received this document on March 7.

Mr. Rizzo: We thought he received it earlier.

President Maher: Perhaps you can schedule a series of meetings during the next thirty days. The council will put their concerns in writing within the next week.

Councilman Hoff: I am not sure if we need a town centre. I have great respect for Sam Rizzo, and I know that this is his "baby". I have seen towns revived, but they were towns already.

Mr. Rizzo: You cannot take a town centre and build it anywhere. That is what happened with the Forrestal Center. It did not have the elements of a town centre. We did this in 1992 and 1994 before we even started the ordinance or master plan. We only did the master plan after we looked at the re-examination of the master plan to find out if the elements for the town centre were still here. They were, and we did a concept plan.

Councilman Hoff: You want pedestrian walkways and also parking on Rt. 516 which is a county road. The average speed limit is 50-55 mph. The county is not going to allow street parking. Are we happy with making this a safety zone or are we going to eliminate a safety zone so that everyone will stay inside this town centre?

Mr. Rizzo: A main highway is a necessary element for a town centre. Think of any successful town that does not have or is not near a main highway. You cannot put a town centre far from a main road. That is happened to Forrestal Village. We showed you photos of downtown Matawan at Rt. 34. They built beautiful buildings and them demolished them. I showed you the drawings and told you that it would not work with good reasons. Two years later this was gone.

Councilman Hoff: We need more study before we commit to this.

Councilman Testino: I don't support parking on Rt. 516 or Cottrell Road, and I have problems with the densities. I like the density transfer idea. If we grant this zone, I don't see how the outlying zones are going to force the in-lying zones to develop first. I see us getting the town homes, the additional high-density things being built out first. They are the winners on the ordinance; the losers are us because we don't get the commercial again. Everyone wants to build homes in Old Bridge, but our current dilemma is how to get the commercial built out. Brunetti does not want to build commercial for us. I like the swapping idea, and that is why we brought Mr. Sheehan here. I want to know how this will react with the other zones. We want to know what we can do in terms of additional down-zoning because of it. When I took the time to back over this, I don't see where the R- 40 and R-80 are going to get us "the bang for the buck". The shopping center across the street was not going to go until you let them build a bigger box. I want to see the white cotton cloth restaurants. We need an anchor store to keep these here. I don't see how the commercial is going to be built out without a developer saying that he is going to by-pass the planning board and go to the zoning board and give many reasons for not building out, and that we need a variance on the box. Now we are getting the big box they did not want. They now have the variance saying they cannot build out.

Mr. Rizzo: They have a better opportunity to build that big box here if this ordinance does not go through. Not only because of the fact that this is more restrictive, but because the ordinance has not been acted on and because we have a master plan, and if this does not get implemented, it gives them a leg up at the zoning board to argue for the variance.

Councilman Testino: I hope that you are not suggesting that we not question the design of the ordinance or how it should go forward. This is a great concept. I don't know how economically this is going to be built out without the residential coming in before the commercial. You know well that those properties will be the hot ones. They will be the first applications in front of the planning board. There will be the additional children and infrastructure problems way before we ever get the commercial. How do we prevent the outlying areas from being built first?

Mr. Sheehan: There has to be a reason why the town centre district is a reasonable place to develop. I don't think this is an appropriate location for a big box, but I do think that there needs to be some form of an anchor--a trip generator reason to get those patrons to this town centre. You have a ceiling on the building size at 10,000 square feet by 40 foot width. You won't even get Rite Aid or Drug Fair anchor. You are going to have to find flexibility to get to a point where we have some form of an anchor.

Mr. Rizzo: The ordinance does not limit the building footprint to 10,000 square feet. You can go over. The idea of the ordinance is to modulate the building if it is over 10,000 square feet so that it looks as if it is not. The building on the site is much larger than 10,000 square feet -- it is more like 30,000 or 40,000 square feet. When you look at the rendering, it looks like several buildings. We did not want to allow a large supermarket or a home improvement store. Our surveys indicated that the residents did not want that type of thing. The anchor does not have to be a store. It could be something that generates people. The town centre would become the anchor. When the application came for across the street, and they wanted several of these anchors, we recognized that we needed them, and could not do without them. In the beginning you are going to have to make one-time compromises.

Councilman Greene: I appreciate the opportunity of having two experts here because I would like you to help me with a problem that I am having. I have a question because I find that we are in an area that is very technical area. We speak in terms of "sound concept", "encouraging down-zoning", etc., and I try to visualize several years from now what are we going to get out of this? I believe many residents feel that we have drug store, restaurant and an ice cream parlor. What does that do for the town? I have no answer. I am looking for you to tell me "Rich, here are five positive things that we feel will result from this plan". For example, we went to a workshop at which a good question was raised. We said if this was supposed to stop commercial sprawl, how does it do that? The answer was that this is to give an opportunity for an individual who may want to build elsewhere in town to come to this area which is designed for that purpose. I thought that was a good answer, if it is the correct answer. I am looking for answers like that.

Mr. Sheehan: I can give you three - you establish a ratable base; you establish jobs; you establish managed growth as opposed to highway sprawl.

Councilman Greene: How do we establish "managed growth"?

Mr. Sheehan: Mr. Rizzo and I agree on the general concept of rather than allowing strip commercial sprawl having some form of a finite commercial village, I believe that when you dictate how the nature of the non-residential ratables can be constructed as to their size, geometry, and how you provide the amenities that bring them other attractions that gets their patrons to them in a reasonable way other than highway sprawl, that is managed growth as opposed to strip commercial sprawl on a highway.

Mr. Rizzo: The state has commissioned Rutgers to do a study wherein they found that if the state follows the plan of building in centers rather than in areas that are undeveloped now and allow it to sprawl the way it is continued, that there is going to be tremendous savings. They speak about $380 million across the state from municipalities and school districts. I will make you a copy of this. Infrastructure does not have to be extended to outlying areas of the town. This means that you are saving money by not building roads, sewers and are saving money in maintaining those structures. You are saving by putting commercial in the center of houses by reducing trips which keeps vehicles off the road. This is a considerable savings. Sprawl has contributed to our traffic problems.

Councilman Greene: What about the residential (advantages)?

Mr. Sheehan: By the time we build a nonresidential ratable, we have exercised the land use right in an area that does not generate school costs, that produces revenue as opposed to a non-cash revenue situation. Every single family house built is a tax loss. The tax ratable that you receive does not pay for the first child let alone the municipal services or the second or third child. Every ratable that you have is not less than a wash if not a profit, depending on the nature of the use.

Councilman Greene: How are you doing that as a part of this plan?

Mr. Sheehan: We are trying to provide areas that have nonresidential planned development within it as opposed to allowing that area to go to residential development.

Councilman Greene: Nonresidential planned development is an example . . .

Mr. Sheehan: Commercial 1A, 1B or the commercial 3B ring of Sam's town centre zone.

Councilman Greene: Is there anything in this plan that limits housing development?

Mr. Sheehan: Within the town centre district its object is to take density from the rest of the town and concentrate it here to have increased density if you buy into this plan immediately surrounding within walking distance of where we sit tonight. You will have increased residential density here to the benefit of less residential density in the outlying districts/zones. Your presently vacant, developable residentially zones land will benefit by reduced residential density. This is a double-edged sword. The other side is that you are putting the density here. You are making a conscience effort to bring that density up to ten units per acre within eyesight of where we sit tonight to the benefit of saving that density in the presently vacant residentially zoned land. That is a policy decision you have to make.

Councilman Greene: You do that outside the circle by . . .

Mr. Sheehan: . . . down zoning it and having the encouragement of the transfer of density right that is built into the town centre ordinance. It says that we will let the developer take one unit from "out there" and bring it here in the town centre zone.

Councilman Greene: Thanks very much. This is all much clearer.

President Maher: Let's keep in mind that Messrs. Rizzo and Sheehan are not prepared to answer any detailed questions.

Councilman Cucchiara: Has any other town have this concept that was started from scratch?

Mr. Rizzo: I have a list of about ten that in the state plan. They are Carteret, Chesterfield Township, Edison Township, Middletown Township, Hillsborough, Washington Township, Manville, Plainsboro and Willingboro.

Mr. Sheehan: I happen to be doing the Clara Barton in Edison. That is an existing corridor.

President Maher: I have gotten negative feedback on what they are doing in Middletown. Hamilton Township in Mercer County is doing this.

Mr. Rizzo: Hamilton Township just received about $3 million in grants by being one of the first new town centres.

Councilman Cucchiara: Is Hamilton Township the closest to our town centre?

Mr. Rizzo: These are predominately fields. They have been awarded $3 million for road infrastructure.

Councilman Butler: In the beginning of your dissertation, you mentioned some stores that would not fit into the proposed town centre concept.

Mr. Sheehan: I identified types of store where I thought we would have a parking problem. I believe they fit into the concept, but Sam and I disagree about whether the design standards for the required amount of parking would work.

Councilman Butler: Aren't we looking for the types of store that would provide volume during the day?

Mr. Sheehan: The list of permitted stores that would be allowed in the town centre zone is all encompassing.

Councilman Butler: You have a few different densities in reference to your concept. Have we decided on the density that will work in that area?

Mr. Rizzo: One of the things that we looked at in the master plan in 1988 was the balance between the retail and residential to make sure that we had a certain amount of residential within walking distance of the retail. Mr. Testino raised the question of whether we were going to get more residential before we get the commercial. Maybe we will. The big answer to that is for the past twenty five years the reason why the commercial has not come into being is that the residential was not in place. The residential was growing and the retail was not. We have developers interested in developing. That would not have happened until the residential was in place.

Councilman Butler: Do you have a commitment to have ratables in that area?

Mr. Rizzo: The stores are market driven. Developers are speaking to us about developing the Cottrell property for retail.

Councilman Butler: I have a problem with the parking. Red Bank successfully resolved their parking problem.

Councilman Testino: Are we upping the densities along Ticetown Road and Higgins Road to get some of the transfers?

Mr. Rizzo: In some of the areas we are lowering the densities because the existing master plan allowed for mini-clusters, and there was no density transfer allowed. There were ten or twelve units per acre for no transfer.

Councilman Testino: I don't want to pass this ordinance and have residents ask me why did we allow town houses to be built next to homes.

Mr. Sheehan: The use plan that was adopted last summer allowed the reduction of the density in those specific areas by one zone.

Councilman Testino: Even if that density be reduced, can that area be qualified for the higher density if you start swapping from other areas in town--everything inside the circle. If it is inside the circle, does that property become qualified as increased densities if you start swapping in?

Mr. Sheehan: Inside the circle - density up. Outside the circle - density down. There is an underlying base zone and increments above that.

Councilman Testino: Can they bring the units per acre up to ten in that zone if they start swapping in?

Mr. Sheehan: That is the trade off.

Councilman Testino: That is optional, and I am concerned about the existing developments.

Councilman Hoff: Please define the word "centre". I thought Clara Barton section in Edison bordered on Woodbridge

Mr. Sheehan: It is a sub-center of Edison. The Clara Barton section borders Fords.

Councilman Hoff: There is good luck building this type of thing where there is a need. I want more evidence, and I would want a copy of the "centre" list.

Mr. Rizzo: There are "centres" as designated by the state master plan. I did not necessarily go through each one of them to see what they consist of.

Councilman Sohor: Does our town centre fit under the state's smart growth program?

Mr. Rizzo: Not only do we have to pass this ordinance, but after this step we have ask the state to endorse the town centre plan, and the state may want things changed in the ordinance. We would have to ask the council if they are willing to make the state's changes. There are a number of plans available when you get this endorsed grant from the state. They expedite the permit process. We were talking about a by-pass road, and one of the problems that we had was how we were going to get them through wetlands. One thing that the state assured us, was that being designated as a center, they will use their resources to help us.

Mr. Sheehan: My office was able to get South Amboy a smart growth designation and we are trying to get the same for South River. You have to be prepared to enter into multiple planning endeavors. The object of the smart growth grant is for a municipality which has already received green acres or which has already been designated a transportation node or to tie all of these multiple planning projects together. You have to determine in what other areas you want the state to enter your municipality.

Councilman Sohor: One of the aspects of the town centre is that the residents are close and can walk to the commercial or retail establishments thereby eliminating cars.

Mr. Rizzo: This has been factored in. All of the engineering sources that I have read say that there is a reduction, but no one has said how much. We have tried to make the parking so that it is close to different uses. One of the problems with the development across the street, was that some of the buildings were separated by much too great a distance. We did not want them to apply their parking standard with this separation because the parking would not be shared. We are hoping that on this site we can put another building such as a community theater to help generate more traffic. The parking for that building would be able to be shared. That is the key to this whole town centre. In areas where the number does not work and the buildings are too far apart, we recognize that we are going to have to say that you are going to look at them as individual uses, and we have to go by the ITE standard for that use.

Mr. Sheehan: We know how far retail patrons will walk from the car or home to the store. We don't know what the percentage is. You cannot under design it during the peak shopping period. There is on-street congestion.

Councilman Sohor: We could expand local bus service to move from an outlying area to inside the town to use municipal facilities, i.e., the library, or retail stores.

Mr. Rizzo: One of the things that we have asked the coordinating committee for the transportation committee is a link with a jitney service which would take people to the Matawan train station, etc.

Mayor Cannon: Although there has not been too many constants in Old Bridge history, I think the town centre concept has been around since I first moved here. There have been a number of master plan and zoning revisions which have always included the town centre zone. Throughout the last thirty years there have been a number of people who have agreed that it would be nice to have a center of town that is identified with Old Bridge and I get concerned when we start from scratch about the whole concept of which some elements are subject to review and question. Other communities are doing what we have on the books for a number of years. What is the alternative - to put strip malls? I don't see what the alternative is to a town centre that is pedestrian orientated that has a variety of services and commercial entities. The residents of Society Hill cannot reach the municipal center without driving. We should move forward on this. We are not going to make it absolutely perfect; it is an evolving concept. I believe that we have to go with what we think is best at this time, and then we have to make amendments as we go along. If we wait until everything is absolutely guaranteed and perfectly worked out, this will take another ten years. We will have other developers come in, and we will have little leverage to work with them. There seems to be consensus among the governing body and administration that this is something that we want to move forward. We have someone who wants to build an Acme supermarket. Time is of the essence. We have grants we can apply for; the state wants to work with us. We have to keep moving this along.

President Maher: Council is to put their concerns to Mr. Rizzo. Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Rizzo will meet over the next thirty days for an exchange of ideas and suggestions to bring us closer to a world class town centre which will better position us as we enter the twenty-first century. I will entertain a motion for first reading of the town centre ordinance.

Mayor Cannon: This is not something that came out of the box recently. A committee of people from zoning, planning, environmental and transportation have reviewed and evaluated this for two years. There has been input from many sources.

President Maher: Rose-Marie Saracino, the Township Clerk, believes that this has to be readvertised, and Mr. Ruggierio agrees.

Councilman Testino: Is this motion for an ordinance with parking on Rt. 516. Are we going to have to amend this again?

President Maher: We will amend whenever we see the plan that Messrs. Rizzo and Sheehan come up with.

Councilman Butler: I move to table this to a meeting to take place in thirty days.

Councilman Testino: I second that motion.

President Maher: Is there a second on the motion for first reading? We are passing the town centre ordinance for first reading this evening with the understanding that if there are additional concerns by town council members, please put those in writing to Mr. Rizzo. Mr. Rizzo and Mr. Sheehan have told us that they are meeting over the next thirty days to bring us closer to the world class town centre that we are all looking forward to.

Ordinance for First Reading.

Township of Old Bridge
Ordinance No. 13-01

An Ordinance Amending the Land Development Ordinance
of the Township of Old Bridge Regarding Town Centre Design Zone

BE IT ORDAINED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey as follows:

SECTION 1: PURPOSE

This ordinance makes various changes to the Land Development Ordinance of the Township of Old Bridge necessitated by the adoption of the Town Centre Design Ordinance.

SECTION 2: AMENDMENTS

A. Section 7-2 (A)(3) of the Land Development Ordinance of the Township of Old Bridge is hereby amended by the addition of the following subsection:

Regulation of uses and design are contained in the ordinance document entitled "Town Centre District Zoning and design Standards" which is incorporated into this Land Development Ordinance by this reference.

B. Section 10-11 of the Land Development Ordinance of the Township of Old Bridge is hereby deleted in its entirety and amended by substitution as follows:

In addition to the design standards otherwise set forth in this Article X, the design standards provided in the document entitled "Town Centre District Zoning and Design Standards, are hereby incorporated into this Ordinance and shall be adhered to for all development in the Town Centre Design Zone. Where the standards contained therein conflict with the standards otherwise set forth in this article the standards therein shall govern.

SECTION 3: INCONSISTENT ORDINANCES

All ordinance or parts of ordinances inconsistent with or in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

SECTION 4: PARTIAL INVALIDITY

If any section, paragraph, clause or provision of this ordinance shall be adjudged invalid, such adjudication shall apply only to the section, paragraph, clause or provision so adjudged and the remainder of the ordinance shall be deemed valid and effective.

SECTION 5: EFFECTIVE DATE

A. Except as set forth at subparagraphs B and C hereof, this Ordinance shall take effect on the earlier of the following dates: (1) on the date the Mayor affixes his/her signature thereto and returns same to the Municipal Council by delivering it to the Municipal Clerk pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:69A-41 or (2) on the tenth day following presentment to the Mayor of the Ordinance pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:69A-41 applicable when the Mayor has failed to return the Ordinance; whichever occurs first.

B. If the Mayor vetoes the Ordinance (in the manner set forth at N.J.S.A. 40:69A-41), this Ordinance shall become effective upon the Township Council's vote to override the Mayor's veto.

C. Notwithstanding any other provision hereof, this Ordinance shall not take effect less than twenty (20) days after its final passage by the Council and approval by the Mayor, where such approval is required, unless the Council shall have also adopted a resolution declaring an emergency and at least two-thirds (2/3) of all the members of the Council vote in favor of such resolution.

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Greene and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Sohor, President Maher.

NAYS: Councilmen Hoff, Testino.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

Prior to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.

Councilman Hoff: If the two professionals are going to meet and update their differences, I don't think it makes good sense to pass this ordinance on first reading. This should be tabled.

Councilman Testino: We passed this once on first reading. I am concerned about the parking and outlying density. I want to hear what the recommended changes are. I am not going to vote for the ordinance as currently constituted. The ordinance needs to be redrafted, or the parking needs to be taken out before I can support it.

Subsequent to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.

President Maher: You will let us know when you want to come back here.

Councilman Testino: I assume this has to be sent to the planning board.

Councilman Hoff: When will we get a report on the county's position on the parking along the county road?

Mr. Rizzo: The county wants this as a highway going through Old Bridge and does not care about our town centre. We have the difficulty of dealing with zoning; the county deals with roads and are concerned about passing traffic through Old Bridge. You have a tough decision to make not only with respect to passing traffic through and the zoning and the community.

Preliminary public comment.

Ms. Clavering: Apologizes to Barbara Anderson for referring to her as "Barbara Erosh" during a congratulatory speech about the Special Olympics. She welcomes Michael Gordon home from his victory in speed skating in Alaska.

Workshop - Proposed Capital Projects.

President Maher: We are not prepared to vote on this tonight, but council will be asking questions.

Public Works.

Mr. Donatelli: Does any one have a problem with the amount of equipment I requested? The additional sweeper would enable us to get around the township more often. I need this because of the new developments. We have one new one and one spare which operates, but not efficiently. The main sweeper does the bulk of the work.

President Maher: The requested sweeper will increase our maintenance of the township road and be more responsive to the public.

Mr. Donatelli: It would increase the maintenance and the sweeping of the routes more often and we need this because of the new developments. I think you will find that I will need this to branch off with one sweeper doing one area at a time. I want to give the residents the service they deserve.

Councilman Cucchiara: We do sweeping on a regular basis, and we notify the residents through cable TV and via a pamphlet so that they can move their vehicles. The township is approximately 40 square miles. You have one sweeper with a back up sweeper. I know that you shut the sweeping down because of the maintenance of the sweeper. The reason you don't like to get out there after October or November is because you are worried that the new sweeper could go down.

Mr. Donatelli: The second sweeper would take up the slack. The three sweeper operators I have are very experienced. They do a lot of sweeping in one day. The operation is working all right, but another sweeper would allow me to do a better job.

Councilman Butler: I see you have two pickups and two spreaders. Are you replacing any equipment?

Mr. Donatelli: That is incorrect. There are four new pickups with the plows and spreaders. I am in my eighth winter with trucks with over 100,000 miles. Many repairs had to be made. We have gotten a lot of mileage out of the four-wheel drive pickup. I am going to need it to service the existing developments. We had an extra truck and plow this year which enabled my department to do a good job. I can have another sweeper by the summer.

Councilman Greene: I believe the curb program is working great and makes a big difference on a block. I believe the amount of money in the budget should be increased. My concern is that when we adopted the budget, we allocated $1 million for curbs; the current budget indicates $900,000. My recollection of the agreement is going from $600,000 to $1 million.

President Maher: We will examine that.

Mr. Shah: I don't see that in the capital section of the budget.

Councilman Cucchiara: Councilman Greene wanted to add another $25,000 per ward for the curb program.

Mayor Cannon: There was an additional $300,000 giving each ward an additional $50,000.

Councilman Cucchiara: I brought the curbing situation to the council's attention in 1998. At that time each council member had to borrow that money from their paving money. It is important that we stick with this program.

Councilman Sohor: I don't want to see us doing curbing and not doing the paving and vice versa.

Mr. Donatelli: The curbing and paving usually takes place at the same time. We are finishing up the work that we started last year in Central Park.

MIS.

President Maher: You are asking for a total of $150,000.

Mr. Shah: For the past several years we have been appropriating money to update our computer equipment. We completely replaced the main frame system in the police department with the Unix based system and spent $150,000. Old Bridge is the only community that spent such a low amount in setting up the new police system. Sayreville and North Brunswick spent $500,000. Tom, Alec and Mike from the police department deserve a lot of credit for doing such a great job. The system is working great. We continue to upgrade over 250 users on the network that we have established. We have a tremendous web based presence which is being visited regularly. Diane and Tom get credit for that. That is continually being upgraded. The money that we are appropriating this year is in the police department. We have agreed to put more computers in the police cars which will save a lot of time for the officers. The mainframe will download the reports. Other money will be dedicated to documenting imaging. We need to do something with our document storage facility. Every department has documents stored in the basement, and we are almost out of capacity. There are not enough funds in the capital budget to fund the project. It would cost a few million dollars to process all our documents.

Mr. Sommers: Those are the key areas. We have spent a lot of money in the last year on the website getting the infrastructure in place. It has taken a lot of growing pains. We have the foundation in place, and now I want to build. There are many components involved and things that we are looking for to get this set up and providing better services to help us operate more efficiently in house. We want to be a leader in the website presence. We receive calls from other towns. We are being recognized for breaking the ice.

President Maher: Last year we received written descriptions of capital projects. Tonight I see only one line with a total. Are there grants available for computers in police cars?

Mr. Shah: Captain Cerra is working on applying for the grants. Alayne was collecting the back up data.

Councilman Butler: It takes a lot of time for a police officer to complete a report. How much time would computers in the cars save the officers?

Mr. Sommers: That analysis has been started and is part of the grant application.

President Maher: In the private sector we refer to this as a "facility inventory program"

Projects.

Mr. Heims: We have a twenty-five year old complex and I have a list which includes fire code improvements. We fail fire inspection every year because of lack of sprinklers in certain areas - the public works office, the boiler room and the parks garage.

Councilman Testino: What are we spending $25,000 on for the lobby?

Mr. Heims: We have been trying to have the lobby repaired unsuccessfully because there was never enough money. This is to replace both slate floors in the municipal building and the senior center. The doors are twenty-five years old.

Councilman Testino: We need to see details on this. I want to be able to explain this to those who will question me.

President Maher: I think whoever uses the jails should pay for the improvements.

Mr. Heims: We are inspected annually by the state who has pointed out that the tiles are brittle and could be used as a potential weapon.

President Maher: Terminology used at work is "let the cost causers pay". We need detail.

Councilman Testino: Please explain HVAC Phase II.

Mr. Heims: This is in design now, and we should be able to go out to bid in one month for a back up chiller and monitoring equipment which is an air evacuation system for the boiler room. Motors and pumps are old and need to be replaced. I have an engineering report to give to you.

Mr. Badcock: Most of the department heads have provided the back up in their proposals, and I will make sure you receive this.

Councilman Sohor: With regard to the HVAC system I have noticed that we have a dirt buildup again. Is that going to be addressed?

Mr. Heims: No, this is to replace bad pumps and motors, etc. We have a system for changing the filters which is done periodically. I don't know why we are getting a build up. I will look into this.

Councilman Cucchiara: There is a memo from the Clerk requesting $15,000 for projects in the Clerk's office. Is that in here?

Mr. Heims: I did not put this in originally. Rose-Marie approached me and asked questions about what certain things would cost, and I suppose she provided that to you.

Councilman Cucchiara: The Clerk is requesting a gate and a Plexiglas shield, a vault door, fire proof cabinets, and additional cabinets. I would like to see this added into the capital budget.

Mr. Heims: My list was prioritized for safety, but that is no problem.

Councilman Testino: I think the Clerk's office would disagree that the Plexiglas is not for safety.

Mayor Cannon: I have a problem with a Plexiglas shield in the Clerk's office. We want this building to be as user friendly as possible. The only office that has this is the court because they are dealing with hostile people and money.

Councilman Cucchiara: I want the council to be aware of the Clerk's request.

Community Development.

President Maher: The council is concerned that we put $300,000 to pay for the Perrine Road improvements. I believe that the council thinks that this money should have come from the developers who are building the commercial sites in that area.

Mr. Iglesias: We discussed the flooding of Perrine Road and the Lowe's development. I suggested to the council that I felt that most of the flooding was caused by the property owners not taking care of the sediment. The $330,000 I have requested has to do with the paving of Perrine Road. I think that the most costly aspect of the improvements should come from those involved in the flooding conditions, and that is not necessarily the Lowe's development. I will be meeting with Manzo and Brunetti.

Attorney Ruggierio: On Wednesday, we have a meeting with Brunetti and Manzo. Mr. Iglesias brought to my attention the fact that the felt that these two were contributing to the conditions that caused this project to be undertaken. We have a meeting to convince them to voluntarily underwrite part of the project.

President Maher: We can take this $300,000 off our list?

Mr. Iglesias: No, we ought to pursue it with the parties mentioned and try to obtain a grant to do this road. I want to be able to prepare the plans to reconstruct the road and the drainage improvements that I feel are necessary. Whether we go through a trial situation with the two parties that we think are involved in this or we go after a grant, we will need construction plans. That $20,000 is necessary not regardless of what we do.

Councilman Hoff: There was no drainage problems on Perrine Road prior to this construction. We must have recourse to those people who are responsible.

Mr. Iglesias: The developers of the Lowe's site are there to install a storm pipe system from Rt. 9. After considerable analysis of the drainage conditions of the entire area (not just Perrine Road), the problem that you refer to exists where at the site of the culvert which is blocked by sediment. This has nothing to do with the improvements to the Lowe's site. There is a low point on Perrine Road near the culvert, and the road will flood. I hardly think we can point the finger at anyone in particular except the two individuals who have contributed to 90% of the sediment clogging the culvert.

Councilman Hoff: The responsibility falls on someone other than Old Bridge. I want to take every step possible to get those responsible to correct their part of this.

Councilman Testino: Why was the developer not required to have the culvert cleaned out prior to obtaining permits.

President Maher: The bad condition of that road is because of the construction of the commercial establishments. Why are we paying $300,000 to pave the road. I apologize to the Madison Park section of town; the road is a mess. You are asking us to spend this money to fix a developer's problems. That should have been a part of the approval for that construction.

Mr. Iglesias: We can get the developers to repair the portion of the road that they damaged. We are dealing with a flood condition. There is a culvert which is clogged. We have to open it up. That means that someone has to apply for a DEP permit; otherwise, the flooding will continue. That is what this amount of money is for. We cannot tell the developers that they created the flooding problem. That is not the case.

Councilman Testino: We could have negotiated easements prior to their installing the sewers or getting the permits to clean out the properties.

Mr. Iglesias: When it comes to hydraulics, either one of those sites were required to apply to the DEP for a stream encroachment permit. The DEP would only require them to show (and so will my office) that they were not raising the water elevation at the point of discharge, and they have not.

President Maher: I need a description of this project. You mentioned that a part of the $300,000 is for paving. You are changing that. It is not for paving; it is for the culverts and for the drainage. How much of this is allocated to paving?

Mr. Iglesias: There are two jobs which should be added. One is Central Avenue.

President Maher: If we are adding projects, get them to Himanshu or the Mayor's office. They will circulate descriptions to council. This council is not prepared to entertain new projects.

Mr. Iglesias: These are old projects, and there is no funding.

Councilman Testino: Is this the first time this is being brought up, or are you saying that the Mayor's office did not recommend them?

Councilman Cucchiara: This is very old. We spent $25,000 in July for a study.

President Maher: Mayor, your department head says there are projects that have to be added to the list. We need descriptions.

Mayor Cannon: In the capital portion of the budget we can name projects. We do have problems that come up during the year, and we need the flexibility. You will have to provide funding in the bonds. We can give you descriptions of the projects we know of now, but must have flexibility.

Parks, Recreation and Social Services.

Mr. Badcock: The first thing we need is a four-wheel vehicle which would replace a 1990 Jeep with over 120,000 miles. The other equipment is under "Turf Equipment" . We have listed three pieces: a 72 inch deck Grounds Master mower for cutting to be added to the fleet. We have a couple that are old, but we will add this and try to keep the others in service for better efficiency. One truckster vehicle, which is a small four-wheel drive, two-seater with a small dump bed, is five years old. It is a great piece of equipment, and we can use it for many uses on the complex and the fields. We needed another Sand Pro. We have one which is critical of our maintenance of baseball in-fields. We do a lot of in-field work for the little league fields. This is a critical piece of equipment. Ours in ten years old.

Councilman Testino: Who is using the Jeep we are replacing?

Mr. Badcock: The parks foreman and the mechanic use it. We use it for the summer playground coordinator. It stays at the town at night. All pickup trucks have decals. With respect to park improvements, there is a fee for Phase I architectural design services for a gold facility as a revenue generator. The total cost will be about $600,000 to get the project designed and engineered.

Councilman Testino: Are we ready to do this? Do we have the other piece?

Mr. Badcock: We will by the end of the summer. If you wait another year, it will be backed up another two years.

Councilman Testino: When did we do the feasibility study?

Mr. Badcock: About eighteen months ago we did two for both tracts and another for one tract which both show a huge amount of revenue being produced. There would be more revenue with two tracts.

Councilman Testino: The county seems only to be breaking even or losing money.

Mr. Badcock: The man who conducted the survey is nationally renowned with respect to financial feasibility. The market has increased. We can expect to generate after expenses after three years $1 million in revenue.

President Maher: Can we get the financials again?

Mr. Badcock: I can make you another copy. We have submitted the reappraisals on the updated market analysis for the Lambertson tract to Green Acres, and I expect in the April refunding round to upgrade our grant another one-half million dollars. We will then be prepared to make an offer to the estate and close the deal this summer. I have met with the owner, who is amenable to this. I am trying to get the township another one-half million dollars from Green Acres.

Queen Yacenda has been removed because we have money in a current bond. When we determine the point of access, we will come back to the council to use the current money in the bond to do master plan information and cost estimates for you.

You have already bonded money for the Ticetown Road soccer parking lot. We have done a feasibility study to show that we can do the work. This would be enough money to engineer this and follow the project through to completion. This entails reconfiguring and repaving the existing parking lot which is merely millings and to increase the parking to about 250 cars on the lot. This will keep the cars parked on Ticetown off the road.

Councilman Testino: Are you bringing dirt to level the area off?

Mr. Badcock: Part of the work would be to level out the existing area - half is dirt; the other half is millings. We will level it off and tier it and add another wing (125 spaces). Asphalt work on the existing lot will increase the number of spaces. There is an influx of younger soccer players; therefore, the kids are smaller; therefore, additional smaller fields.

Councilman Testino: Can we include this in our paving program bid to get a lower unit cost?

Mr. Shah: I don't know if the paving on the road is the same.

Mr. Badcock: We will explore that.

Councilman Testino: We will adjust the specs for the bid.

Mr. Badcock: A cheerleading mat sports building facility would be good for the township. $350,000 would be the township's fair and we are applying to the state for a legislative grant for the other half of the cost which is another $350,000. This building would be 60 X 80 all mat surface on a concrete slab, air conditioned and heated. It is a pre fab with a 20 foot roof which is perfect for cheerleading, gymnastics, tumbling and wrestling. The primary use is cheerleading. We would need two small unisex bathrooms and a changing area. This would have to be hooked up to water off Summit Avenue. This is earmarked for Veteran's Park behind the two softball fields. The building cost is about $480,000. The site work including the parking lot of 20 cars, the access from Summit Avenue and the water and sewer will bring up the cost. We are trying to cut down on the amount of money the township would be liable for. We were going to get state money if possible. We won't know if we get the grant until sometime in July. We heard about the Robin building in September of that fiscal year. We would not bond anything until we get the other half. If this did not come through, you would bond for half the cost of the building. There is no way to use that money to make a building of realistic size. The usable size is 80 X 60 for the actual surface with a 20 foot ceiling.

Councilman Cucchiara: There are about 800 to 1000 cheerleaders in this township with no facility. This is a great project.

Mr. Badcock: The ceilings in the schools are too low for them to practice. We also need space where we can leave mats down.

Councilman Testino: What other areas did you consider?

Mr. Badcock: The only other site would be Laurence Harbor beachfront park, but there is not enough land for this. There are wetlands in Geick Park. The small area behind the baseball field, but the parking area would be too far away.

Councilman Testino: Don't we have room in the town center?

Mr. Badcock: The only way we could do that would be to cut trees down and clear land. We know that we are going to have to ask the council for additional parking at the complex. We could find a place by the arena.

Councilman Testino: What type of administration will be at the building?

Mr. Badcock: The cleaning would be done by our recreation staff.

Councilman Cucchiara: Vandalism at Vets Park has been curtailed. We are still waiting for our cameras.

Mr. Badcock: I have information from six vendors. We are waiting to have a meeting with Alayne and the Chief.

Councilman Cucchiara: The more that park is used, the less vandalism we will have.

Mr. Badcock: A recreation center in Ward III would be a good project. We are looking at areas other than the old senior building on Rt. 9. There is a tremendous need for this center. This is a worthy project with an estimated cost of $1 million, which I believe to be a little conservative based on normal engineering fees. We think that $100,000 could start this project. We have leads on other properties to look at.

Councilman Butler: I thank Tom for all his work. Do we have an idea as to the bid deadline?

Mr. Badcock: Bob Heims is looking at the bid demolition which should be completed by late spring, and that is if we are using that site unless we found a more suitable site.

Councilman Butler: How long would it take for the engineering drawings?

Mr. Badcock: We would solicit proposals from engineering companies to prepare plans and specifications. The council would then award a contract to an engineering company for the designs for that building.

Councilman Butler: I would like to have a ground breaking by late summer or early fall.

Mr. Badcock: You could have a contract awarded by then.

Councilman Butler: I thank everyone for the time and effort that has been put into this.

Mr. Badcock: We are in the throws of the land acquisition and are hoping to receive an additional $500,000 grant which we don't have to pay back on the Lambertson tract. We are waiting for the April funding round from Green Acres for more money for the land at Woodland Trails.

Councilman Testino: Are we bonding for land acquisitions now, or are they going to be done separately?

Mr. Shah: We are not proposing a bond ordinance for a land acquisition at this time, Cedar Ridge is done, and with respect to the other ones, until we know the final numbers and the amount of the grant from the state, we will come back to the council. In the past we have treated any land acquisitions separate from our capital bond ordinance. Council wants to proceed in the same manner this time. We have not borrowed the money for Cedar Ridge yet.

Councilman Testino: When we borrow the money, can we use the open space money for payment?

Mr. Shah: We are appropriating money to allow us to bond.

Councilman Testino: What does the council have to do to make sure that the money is used to pay back those bonds? Do we have to pass a resolution?

Mr. Shah: When you authorize through the ordinance to borrow the money, the funds will be dedicated through the referendum. We have $6 million based on tax rate and ratables.

Councilman Testino: Please alert us to that when you authorize the bonds. My intent would be to make that a dedicated stream.

Isn't there Area II monies that can be used for improvements? Please have that answer before we can go for the final bonding.

Mr. Shah: Am I going to the bond counsel for the preparation of the bond ordinance now?

Mayor Cannon: I will get this to you by Friday. We that we can do first reading at the regular meeting. I don't want to wait much longer.

Councilman Testino: Don't put this deadline on us; we only received this last week. We are always boxed into a corner because you want the Spring projects. You could have given this to us in January.

Hearing.

1. Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Oxford Estates New Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 at 8:00 p.m. (postponement requested by attorney)

2. Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Renaissance Corporate Center New Date: Monday, April 23, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. (postponement requested)

Consent Agenda.

No. 125 Bingo/Raffle

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the following organizations have made application to hold, operate and conduct a Bingo/Raffle; said applications being in accordance with the statutes relating thereto:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge that the Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to issue to the applicants, the following licenses:

RA41A-01 President's Council of PTA's
RA44-01 St. Ambrose Church
RA45-01 Bayshore American Hellenic Association
RA46-01 Applegate School PTA
RA47-01 St. Ambrose Combined Societies
RA48-01 Most Holy Redeemer Church
RA49-01 St. Ambrose Home School Association

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Greene and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 126 Memorializing Release of Performance Guarantee - Bridgepointe.

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the developer for Bridgepointe has requested a release of the performance guarantee; and

WHEREAS, a public hearing was held on February 26, 2001 at which time the Township Engineering Department and the Township Council were heard; and

WHEREAS, the Assistant Township Engineer, in a report, has recommended release of the performance guarantee for the Bridgepointe Development for Sections 1, 2, 3A and 3C. The Engineer's report is hereby incorporated by reference in this Resolution; and

WHEREAS, the Assistant Township Engineer recommends release of the performance guarantee as follows:

SECTION BOND NO. BOND AMOUNT CASH

(without interest added)

1 620355 $54,225.80 $6,028.43

2 624902 $288,552.86 $32,061.43

3A & C S01472 $593,045.30 $65,893.93

NOTE: 1. Performance Guarantees for Section 1 and 2 were reduced in 1992 to the above amounts.

2. Performance Guarantees for Sections 3A and 3C have not been reduced.

3. A bond summary sheet is attached providing more details.

WHEREAS, release of the performance guarantee for the Sections 1, 2, 3A and 3C subject to the following conditions.

1. Posting of the following maintenance bonds for a period of two (2) years. (This will be a paper bond only. No cash deposits are required.):

Section 1 - $ 27,127.91

Section 2 - $144,276.43

Sections 3A & C - $49,815.81

Total $221,220.15

2. Confirmation that the Homeowners Association has received delivery of the aerator pump.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey, that the performance guarantee be released subject to the above conditions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Township Finance Department shall receive and follow the written direction of the Township Legal Department regarding distribution of the cash portion of the performance guarantees. The Township Council is aware of the requirement that certain of these funds be paid directly to the surety; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a true copy of this Resolution shall be deposited with the following township offices: Department of Engineering and Department of Finance.

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Greene and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 127 Canceling CDBG Mortgage for Dorothy Duda.

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Mortgage was entered into by Dorothy Duda with the Township of Old Bridge for premises known as 172A Ticetown Road, Old Bridge, New Jersey; and

WHEREAS, the amount of the CDBG Mortgage is $3,900.00; and

WHEREAS, the above-named individual has paid the outstanding amount of the mortgage and is requesting cancellation of said mortgage.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey that the CDBG Mortgage in the amount of $3,900.00 is hereby canceled. The Township Council authorizes the Mayor and Clerk to execute the discharge documents.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a true copy of this Resolution shall be deposited with the following Township offices: Community Development Block Grant.

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Greene and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 128 Authorizing salary increase for Rose-Marie Saracino, Township Clerk, at the rate of 3 1/2%.

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, New Jersey that:

WHEREAS, the Township Council is authorized to set the salaries of officers and employees of the Council (NJSA 40:609A-36(j)); and

WHEREAS, the Township Clerk is the Township Council's employee; and

WHEREAS, the Township Council wishes to pay a salary increase of three and one-half (3 ½%) percent to the Township Clerk covering July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001; and

WHEREAS, the Township Clerk shall receive additional compensation as follows:

All health, prescription, vision, long-term disability insurance's and other similar benefits afforded other full time employees of the Township of Old Bridge, plus any benefits provided by Ordinance.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey, that the Township Clerk's salary is hereby increased by three and one-half (3 ½%) percent.

Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Greene and so ordered on the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.

NAYS: None.

ABSENT: Councilman Redmond, Councilwoman Marinaccio.

No. 129 Authorizing recycling tonnage grant application with the DEP (2000) Authorizing recycling tonnage grant application with the DEP (2001).

RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Mid