December 15th Meeting Summary

Before the holidays, the Verona Town Council had a meeting, and some important decisions were made. Here is a summary of key actions taken by the Council.

We started off with two legal matters that relate to our affordable housing requirements. We had a key update from our Legal team about 40 minutes into our meeting. Our state-required affordable housing plan (which you can read here) was challenged by multiple entities, including Fair Share Housing. As required by law, Verona needed to reach a resolution on these challenges by the end of December. We had a special executive session at 6 pm where we discussed these matters with our legal team and Planners. The Council then took a vote to settle the legal matters with Fair Share Housing and with the developer who owns the property 885 Bloomfield Avenue (across from the Community Center).

Some key elements in the settlement that our legal team discussed in public.

• Our overall required number of affordable housing units we need to create in this next round will increase from 58 units to 65 units.

• We will be increasing our required affordable housing set aside from 15% to 20% for new rental projects going forward.

• We will implement a sliding scale for density for projects in our Town Center zone going forward.

• 28 units of housing will be built at 880 Bloomfield Avenue. The original proposal from the developer was 60 units. This development will have a tax abatement (PILOT).

• The owners of 251 1/2 Grove, who are also challenging our affordable housing plan, are in negotiations with the Township to change the zoning of this property to allow for multi-family housing with a 20% set aside for affordable units. This settlement will be voted on at a future date.

  
  

The two resolutions to settle these legal matters passed 3-2, with myself and Councilwoman Holland voting against the resolutions. As these are ongoing legal matters, I cannot get into the details of why I did not vote to settle these two legal challenges. However, I encourage the public to refer to my previous statements when I voted against the endorsement of our affordable housing plan, which you can read here: https://www.christinemcgrathverona.com/post/june-23rd-meeting-summary

Prior to the vote, after Councilwoman Holland responded to comments made by a member of the public, the Mayor chose to make statements against Councilwoman Holland and myself for not supporting the affordable housing plan and implied that both of us are misleading the public. He contends that Councilwoman Holland and I could have drafted our own affordable housing proposals and recommendations that could have been considered as alternatives to the Plan that was approved by the Planning Board and negotiated by the Council in closed session. I was so shocked by his accusations and exchange with Councilwoman Holland I was left speechless at the meeting.

Let me just be clear to the public on a few things. Council members do not have the ability to hire staff or direct township resources to spend money on our own analyses. That is not how our form of government works, nor do we get a stipend large enough to hire professionals on our own that are qualified to do this. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are on the Planning Board, and the Mayor is on a four person sub committee on affordable housing. This strategy is one that he is directing.

With our closed session items, the Mayor is representing that Councilwoman Holland and I never raised alternative ideas or objections to the negotiations with developers as they were occurring. This is simply not the case. Every member of the Town Council is deeply engaged and participates in close session items. I do think there is an issue with members of the Council truly listening to each other when we are in closed session and the process by which consensus is achieved.

If getting to 5-0 votes is important for members of the Council, then there is work that can be done by the Mayor to bridge the divide between members. I will always answer a call from one of my colleagues should they choose to reach out.

After these votes, we then voted on rates and employee salaries for the 2026 pool season. The ordinances passed mostly with 4-1 votes, with Councilwoman Holland voting against most of the pool ordinances. I voted for the 2026 membership rates, but against the ordinance with the fees for the season, as I disagreed with raising the guest pass fees due to overwhelming feedback from the residents on their cost. It passed 3-2. I recused myself from the vote on the ordinance on how to account for the free first responder memberships, as I have a family member who volunteers with the Rescue Squad. However, I do not utilize, nor plan to utilize, the free membership offered to first responders.

As I stated in the meeting, this was the earliest we ever voted on the pool rates, as we were responding to resident feedback that they want to pay for the pool membership over time. After reading everyone's feedback from survey and from resident emails, I did conclude that for the 2026 season - we needed to pilot out of township memberships, which are capped at 100 total memberships and will cost $1,000 each. I know that for some residents, allowing out of town members is a disappointment. However, until we improve the number of young Verona families joining the pool, and increase sponsorships and other revenues, its a step I felt was necessary to take. We will need to examine the impact of doing this very carefully this year, and we can always make a different decision in the future.

Other things voted on.

• We made an important zoning change for non-conforming structures. If you are planning any sort of home expansion, you should review the new rules to make sure your plans comply.

• We expanded our flood advisory control board with Cedar Grove to include Woodland Park and Little Falls

• We started the process to declare 420 Bloomfield Avenue (Richfield Regency) and Area in Need of Redevelopment

• We approved a contract with Verona Heating and Cooling to replace the boiler at the Verona Public Library

• We approved a change of contract for the Claridge Booster Pump Station project.

• The Council voted 4-0 to execute the Certificate of Completion for Verona Flats. I abstained from the vote.

• Several contracts were approved with T&M Associates, George Coyne Chemical.

Finally, we had a confusing end to our meeting on Boards and Appointments. We were supposed to go into closed session to discuss the volunteer appointments, but after public comment by a member of the Planning Board (who is up for reappointment) it was determined that we needed to give a proper Rice notice to all volunteers that we needed to discuss. Over the course of my time on Council, we have gone back and forth on the correct procedure on how to do appointments. We were able to make some appointments at the meeting, but deferred additional appointments to our next meeting.

We do have a meeting on Monday, January 5th. Our Reorganization Meeting, and selection of Mayor, will be on Monday, January 19th at 7 pm.

As always, comments on any matter should be sent to the entire Council by going here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.