September 14th Meeting Summary
The Verona Town Council had a meeting on Monday, September 14th. Here is a summary of what was discussed.
The big discussion of the night was on a PILOT agreement for a property on 383 Bloomfield Avenue (Hillcrest Farms) and the redeveloper agreement. I voted for the Pilot and agreement, both of which passed 4-1. I felt that the agreement was fair to both the developer of the property and to the Township. Our experts negotiated the financial deal extensively and the rate of return is reasonable but also allows the project to be financed. Previously to negotiating the PILOT, the Township negotiated with the developer to make the building less dense and be of attractive appearance. It also includes housing for adults with special needs, which is desperately needed as there is a huge deficit statewide for these type of housing units. These decisions is why the project needed a PILOT in order to be constructed.
As part of this meeting the Council also passed a resolution to establish a negotiating committee with the Board of Education on the sharing of PILOT funds. The negotiating committee will be the Deputy Mayor Jack McEvoy and Councilman Alex Roman. At the time of this writing this resolution is not posted publicly but should be available at some point in the future here: https://www.veronanj.org/Resolutions.
While most of the meeting was discussion PILOTs and school funding, we had some other important conversations. Our rent control attorney came to discuss some possible changes to how we administer rent control in Verona. He has provided the Council with a red-lined ordinance, which will be discussed in new business at the next meeting. If you live in or own a rent-controlled building, I encourage you to watch this part of the Council meeting (about 50 minutes in) and tune in to our next meeting on October 5th.
The Council pulled introduction of an ordinance to create a short term tax abatement for the entirety of Bloomfield Avenue. It is unclear if that ordinance will be introduced anytime soon.
We did introduce an ordinance to set the salary for a Zoning-Land Use Administrator for up to $115,000. Public hearing and a vote will be at the next meeting.
Under resolutions and actions taken at this meeting:
We closed out the contract for Everett Field planning and Dodd, Summit, and Afterglow Way road reconstruction
We passed an update to the redevelopment agreement for Verona Sunset Urban Renewal (one council member abstained), which will be starting construction soon
We applied for CDBG funds for some ADA accessibility improvements on Morningside Road
We awarded contracts to DNS Media group for VTV public access channels, Srans Engineering for the next phase of the Bloomfield Avenue streetscape project, and Rapid Pump and Meter for water and sewer work.
We had a public hearing for our application for a Climate Resilient Grant.
In new business we discussed amendments to an ordinance related to the "Completeness Review Process" for projects submitted to the township for zoning board review. The ordinance will be introduced at the next meeting.
Finally, we appointed someone to the Planning Board to fill a vacancy.
We went into Executive Session.
If you have any feedback for the Council, please send it to all members by using the form here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.
