August 3rd Meeting Summary

The Verona Town Council met on Monday August 3rd. Here are the highlights of what was discussed.

Our standard business moved very quickly on Monday night. We approved the ordinance to establish a Supervisor Sewage Plant Operator as a covered position, with a salary of up to $130,000. We approved Boswell Engineering drafting our Watershed Improvement Plan, which is required by the state to be completed by the end of the year. We also accepted Opioid Settlement Grant funds.

During New Business is when the Council had several substantial conversations. The first was on Town Center and Small business support. The administration provided an overview of several actions they will be taking in the following weeks to address the opportunities to make our downtown more vibrant and make it easier for small businesses to navigate our zoning process. These ideas include, but are not limited to, creating a communications plan to publicize recent expansion of the allowable types of businesses that are permitted uses in our town center zone, creating a clear section on our website for potential new small business owners so that they can more easily understand and navigate our zoning laws, and looking for new grant opportunities to see if we can hire a consultant to help us recruit new opportunities for our vacant storefronts and new retail spaces that will be developed in the next 1-3 years. I participated robustly in this discussion, as I had already had previous conversations with our Administration on this topic, and some of what was discussed came from those conversations.

We then discussed for the first time establishing a tax abatement for our "Area In Need of Rehabilitation", which covers Bloomfield Avenue. This was a very important first conversation on this topic. The redevelopment law allows us to provide an up to 5 year tax abatement on the increased assessed value if property owners make certain improvements. We discussed as a Council that we want this potential tax abatement for improvements to commercial, not residential property. There are different ways to structure the abatement, and our Administration will propose a recommendation in the next draft of this policy.

We started to define some of the objectives of this policy. For example, we all agree we want existing commercial owers to be able to modernize their existing spaces. I brought up in-fill development, which is where property owners can add one or two floors of residential on top of existing one floor structures, and I also raised the possibility of office to residential conversations. We discussed that, even if we adopt this policy, our zoning laws apply and every project proposed would need to go through our typical zoning board approval process.

One thing that was on my mind that we also discussed was some real life examples from this tax abatement working in other communities. I asked our Administration to work with our Planner to actually pull examples of this type of tax abatement in practice. Does this policy work to get commercial property owners to improve their spaces? Understanding if these policies help to create meaningful rehabilitation of properties is important before passing any changes.

The last conversation in new business we had was a discussion on which subject matter expert firm we wanted to hire to assist us with the design of the new emergency services building. This conversation was the follow up to a special meeting that was held on Tuesday, July 28th. While I was not in attendance at that special meeting, I did watch the 3 1/2 hr meeting and was up to speed for this conversation. Bringing in a special matter expert is something I advocated for after several residents provided very meaningful feedback and asked very thoughtful questions on the building's location and design. During the special meeting, all three firms interviewed brought up some great points and considerations on this project on the local and design. I was excited to hear their thoughts and I believe any one of the talented firms interviewed would be able to advise us.

In the end, the Council chose H2M Architects & Engineers as our subject matter expert on this project. They will work with our Administration and architect to get up to speed on this project and start to make recommendations on the location and design of our much needed emergency services project.

Finally, after executive session, we exited closed session and passed a resolution to settle any claims with Bella Princess Cafe. Most Verona residents are aware that this local business had to cease operating after a recent Verona Board of Adjustment ruling. While I cannot get into the terms of the settlement, you can read the resolution here: https://www.veronanj.org/meetingfiles/97111/resolutions/3666dd845bed426fbeb2a28b8ed5010e.pdf.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, August 17th. As always, all questions and comments can be sent to the entire Council by using the following form: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.