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Key Public Land Use Hearing -

Residents Take Notice


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

7/29/2024

Contents:


  • Key Public Land Use Hearing - Residents Take Notice
  • Update on New Master Plan Progress
  • Giant Resident Turnout for Ethics Complaint Hearing
  • Council Candidate Duane Harley's Community Fish Fry
  • This Week in Teaneck - July 29 to August 4


Announcements

  • Teaneck's Night Out - August 6
  • Teaneck Day Weekend - September 8


Contacting Teaneck Voices:

  • Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com
  • Phone: 201-214-4937
  • USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Key Public Land Use Hearing -

Residents Take Notice

On Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 6:00 pm in MP-1 of the Rodda Center there will be a public hearing “to obtain comments regarding its [the Township’s] proposal to the NJDEP Green Acres Program for the proposed diversion of parkland”. That parkland includes small portions of 3 Teaneck parks. Remember, if the Township takes existing parkland for some other purpose, the Township must replace it with an equivalent amount of protected property.

The title of the public notice for this hearing headlines “Notice of Green Acres Public Hearing Route 4 Bridge over Palisade Avenue…”.


But, in fact, this is a public hearing called by the Township as quoted above and the public comments sought are to be made to be made simultaneously to the Township’s Manager and to the public land compliance division of the state Department of the Environment (DEP).


The first question Teaneck Voices asked was: What Proposal to NJDEP? The notice does not provide an answer – but the Public Notice sign with tiny lettering on Windsor Road going north (see image below) does. It says:


“All information submitted to the Department in support of this requested diversion/disposal of parkland is available for public inspection at Teaneck Municipal Offices, Local Library … “  

  

So off to the Library. But after a diligent search, the Library’s Reference Librarians found no such thing!

Voices has now located this “information” on the state website (and sent it to the Library and placed it on the Teaneck Voices website’s home page as the lead story (Click Here).


Just what is happening here? We believe the answer is the following:

Chunks of concrete have for many years been falling from the State’s neglected Route 4 bridge over Palisade Avenue and the CSX line. NJDOT has for more than a decade been in discussions with various Township entities about replacing that bridge and perhaps widening east bound Route 4 to reduce the traffic backup. Apparently NJDOT again began real discussions with the Town via a February 2023 proposed map plan for bridge repair/ replacement from where Route 4 passes Garrison up to Alicia Avenue. The revised and current DOT map is so large and the font so tiny that interested residents should Click Here (or type NJDOT RT4 - palisade ave bridge improvements row plan 2024) to try to review it.

 

Town & NJDOT Agree on Replacement Bridge Maintenance Responsibilities


By May 1 this year, the NJDOT/Town discussions had led to real Town action in the form of an agreement sent by NJDOT to then Manager Dean Kazinci which in 8 pages describes how maintenance and control of Route 4 and affected Town streets will be managed during and after this substantial construction. NJDOT rules require that that “maintenance and control” agreements be passed by Council resolution. That is why for the very first time there was public notice of this agreement and a copy of this agreement was included in the agenda packet as Resolution 180-2024 of the June 18, 2024 Council meeting (Click Here at pp. 56-65 where a simplified map of the replacement plan can be found at p. 65.) Why this resolution was separately unanimously passed at about 12:40 am of June 19 is not explained in the draft Council minutes.


The 7/30 Public Hearing Itself



All of which brings us to explaining what the public hearing this Tuesday, July 30 at 6:00 pm is about. Readers are encouraged to read what DEP has described as the application that Teaneck has made to it. The Town asks to be allowed by DEP to work with NJDOT to secure land of equal value to the portions of the three parks that DOT wants to use in the Rte. 4 bridge replacement project. The public hearing is a step that NJDEP’s Green Acres requires that the Township take so that members of the public can comment about whether it (DEP) should approve this diversion plan and the compensation NJDOT would make in order to take this protected open space property. Residents who want to make such comments have, in the public notice, been told to submit their views to DEP before August 15 preferably by email (Click Here) and to the Town.


What will Likely Occur at the Hearing?


Voices has not been able to confirm whether staff from Green Acres will be present on Tuesday nor to find out who will moderate the meeting for the Town. It has learned that Michael Klatsky from and for the Environmental Commission (EC) will propose that as one example of NJDOT replacement property a new path be placed along the north side of Rte. 4. (Click Here and move the cursor to 1hr&1min to listen to the Klatsky proposal for that path as it was made to & passed by the EC on 7/17). Voices has also learned that the Hackensack River Greeenway Advisory Board continues to urge Council to acquire 2 parcels for Greenway expansion along the River and, if the focus is on Greenbelt property, to acquire the Siegel and Siegel property on the south side of Rte. 4 near the Englewood border.

Voices strongly urges residents with land use concerns to attend the public hearing.

Update on Master Plan Progress

50 years ago, the second paragraph of the 1979 Teaneck Master Plan included this observation in its first sentence:

          “Teaneck is essentially a fully developed community”

Therein lies both a key reason why land use has become the most debated and volatile Teaneck municipal issue in 2024 – and why getting the new Master Plan “right” will importantly shape the viability and sustainability of this uniquely diverse town. Our Town’s resources available for new uses are so very limited! How do we now want to decide what should change or remain the same?


All of which leads us to make sure all our Voices readers know how to find out just where things with the new Master Plan now stand and what is currently being done and what lies ahead.


Where things Now Stand:  Since early Spring, the Planning Board has been making changes to the confidential draft it had received from the Town planner. Then just two days before its most recent (July 18, 2024) meeting the Board had the latest 143-page 2024 Master Plan draft placed on the Township website – where it today remains readily available at Click Here or go to the current Town website’s homepage, then

click the Residents box, then

Click the Master Plans box and then

scroll to the bottom to find Teaneck Master Plan_Draft for Discussion_7.15.2024.pdf

Readers will want to be sure that this draft’s revised version of the vision, goals and objectives of the Plan itself reflect their views. That portion of the MP was key to the consensus that eventually supported that 2007 MP version.


What is currently being done with that draft? At its July 18 meeting, the Board spent the last 2 hours and 18 minutes in a structured discussion of key sections of the new draft. When Voices first reported on the 7/18 meeting, the video of that meeting was not available. The first nearly 20 minutes of that video had been hacked. Despite diligent efforts by the Clerk and IT departments to put together an edited version, for nearly a week the Town website had no PB meeting recording. It is now readily available on the town website’s home page at Click Here or on the home page, find the minutes & agenda section for the Planning Board and at meeting July 18, and click video.


That PB discussion of the draft MP begins at min24&30sec of the video and goes until 2hrs&42mins. As discussed in the prior Voices edition, (Click Here) there was surprising consensus around how, for example, better to describe the relationship between rehabilitation and redevelopment mechanisms to revitalize the Town’s business districts and clarify how different approaches to zoning might work. One issue that got particular PB member focus was the idea that if/when the Town was considering or certainly implementing any Areas in Need of Redevelopment (AINRs) there should be special attention given to getting the well-documented views not only of those who own property within the Area being considered (as is required by State law) but also the views of all residents who live within or in areas contiguous to the proposed “Area” (something NOT required by the state statute). That recommendation would represent a significant departure from how the Town currently and implements redevelopment designations and redevelopment plans.



Since the meeting video is now available – and only 10 residents were in attendance at the 7/18 meeting - we recommend that our readers take the time to get the new draft MP in front of them and watch our new PB in action as they methodically work through and improve their own draft in that meeting.


What Happens Next: For the last 12 minutes of the video of that 7/18 meeting, the PB wrestled with how it could/should review the revised version it had just instructed the Planner to create, to then actually approve the revised draft and make sure the public had time to review THAT version and then give adequate notice for public input. The Board did not take formal action on exactly how and when that would occur but did appoint a four-member working group (Brown, Belcher, Ortiz and Sohn) to carefully review the evolving document in order to work toward final PB approval, perhaps even by the PB meeting currently scheduled for August 22. (That meeting now overlaps with a Council meeting and already conflicts with some Planning Board member "end of summer" schedules.) The public hearing date may, then, be pushed to Thursday, September 12. The Board discussion of this “finishing and adopting the MP” begins at 2hr42min of the 7/18 video.

In the meantime, as residents read and develop views, they are encouraged to send their suggestion to the Board. The email address has been announced as:

masterplan@teanecknj.gov

Giant Resident Turnout

for Ethics Complaint Hearing

On Monday July 22, it was standing room only (36 in-person attendees) in Newark’s administrative law hearing room with more than 80 persons on zoom when Judge Andrew Baron opened the long-delayed hearing on charges that Teaneck’s former Board of Education (BOE) President, Dr. Ardie Walser had somehow violated the State’s School Ethics Act. On Tuesday, over 100 participants zoomed in to observe the second day of the hearing. The experienced Judge Baron noted that he had never before seen such a large public attendance at an administrative law hearing. Voices interviewed several of those observers who opined that more than 95% of the public participants had attended in active, strenuous support of Walser.

 

As the eight hours of hearing unfolded, the facts emerged as to how Walser, a revered public servant, had become entangled for nearly 6 years in charges that even the individual who had initiated those charges, current Teaneck Mayor Michael Pagan, acknowledged under cross examination he had several times (he could not remember when) sought to withdraw. At some early point after Pagan made his 2018 complaint, the NJ Department of Education’s School Ethics Commission had found that there was “probable cause” to substantiate Pagan’s original allegations and thus denied Pagan’s request that the complaint be withdrawn. So at this hearing a Deputy Attorney General, Sadia Ahsanuddin, Esq., served as counsel for the plaintiff, calling 5 witnesses – Pagan, 1 Teaneck Schools Employee, 2 former Teaneck Schools employees, and one a former Board of Education member.


The public observers report that the process of the plaintiff’s counsel’s questioning was painful to watch.


At issue: Had Walser violated the School Ethics Act , N.J.S.A. 18A:12-21, by being on the BOE and simultaneously continuing to participate in a Saturday morning tutorial program he had founded as a project of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church 20 years earlier. The math and reading tutorial program, Math Adventures and Word Play (MAWP) has always been free and offered to all Teaneck and neighboring towns’ children. The program’s tutors and leaders, none of whom have ever been compensated, are diverse in ethnicity and religions. The Deputy Attorney General’s questioning boiled down to two basic questions:


o  Had Walser benefited financially or personally from his role in MAWP while serving on the BOE. The clear and unambiguous answer from all five of the plaintiff’s witnesses, “not to my knowledge”. 

o  Had Walser used – or abused - his role on the BOE to promote the MAWP program in the schools or on the BOE website, etc.. The witnesses answer to that question involved clarification of how materials or BOE website content get approval. The answer from all the witnesses was that any such material or communication had always been approved by the proper administrative person, the Superintendent of Schools. And each witness testified to no knowledge of Walser pressing the Superintendent or other school personnel for such inclusion in schools communications.


Such was the Plaintiff’s case. When it was concluded, Philip Stern, the attorney for Walser, stated that the entire plaintiff’s case had definitively made the defense’s case and that the defense would not call any of its witnesses. He instead asked the judge to dismiss the case.



What the judge said in response clarified why this hearing, unfortunately, would not entirely end the matter. Judge Baron reviewed the fact that even were he to agree with Stern and rule that the case should be dismissed, that ruling would then go back to the School Ethics Commission which could either accept his judgment or reject it and send the case on to an appellate court. He implied that his decision would provide substantial clarification of his findings.

The process going forward is this: Both the plaintiff and defense attorneys said they were prepared to write final statements. The judge suggested several elements of such statements he would like to see included. A transcript of every word of the hearing will be completed. It will be sent to the plaintiff and defense attorneys who will then have 30 days to prepare their final statements. In turn, the judge then has 45 days to prepare and issue his ruling. Then it’s off to the School Ethics Commission.


Hence this entire process likely has 6 more months at least. In talking with hearing attendees, Voices found broad concern that Dr. Ardie Walser, who has already endured 6 years of false charges, will now have to wait even longer to clear his name.


Voices notes, as well, that a claim that even the original accuser said should have been be withdrawn will continue to be reflected in the continuing costs of using both Teaneck BOE funds and State attorneys’ fees to reach a conclusion. (Voices has submitted an OPRA to learn the amount the Teaneck BOE has thus far had to spend on this case).



We all deserve to have justice determined here, as in so many places in our public life, with a justice system that must do so more competently and speedily than what has occurred here with Dr. Ardie Walser

Council Candidate Duane Harley's

Community Fish Fry

Last Friday afternoon, Teaneck Council Candidate Duane Harley threw a Community Fish Fry.


A fish fry is basically a meal of fried fish with sides of salads and vegetables. But a Fish Fry is known throughout the United States as a neighborhood or community social event bringing people together for a communal meal and a celebration of their joy at being part of a distinct village. Fish Frys have taken on special characteristics according to the region in which they are held:

In the Northeastern United States, haddock or cod is the fish of choice, served with cole slaw or macaroni salad and a roll. It is a trademark of many restaurants in upstate New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.


In the southern United States, a fish fry is a family or social gathering, held outdoors or in large halls. The fish is usually breamcatfishflounder and bass battered and deep-fried in cooking oil. In addition to the fish, hushpuppies (deep-fried, seasoned corn dumplings), and coleslaw are served.


In the Midwest, the fish fry tradition is strong in Wisconsin, where hundreds of restaurants hold fish fries on Fridays (and sometimes on Wednesdays). A typical Wisconsin fish fry consists of beer batter fried cod, perchbluegillwalleyesmelt, or in areas along the Mississippi River, catfish.


Friday in Teaneck, the Harley Fish Fry was held on the front and side lawns of a Teaneck Road home, with blue and white tablecloths covering several tables and chairs pulled up to allow changing groupings of people to meet, share, and celebrate together.


Freshly fried fish was served box-lunch style with sides of green beans and macaroni salad. Nestled in the bag alongside the box was a piece of luscious buttercream-topped cake.


The guests included neighbors, friends from Harley’s school years here in Teaneck, and a rich representation of the diversity of residents that Teaneck, proudly, is known for. The conversations flowed around family, summer activities, and the common experiences of living in Teaneck. A particularly poignant moment came when a Teaneck High class of ’89 graduate and a graduate from the class of ’59 shared memories.



The Teaneck Council and Board of Education campaigns of 2024 continue to reflect the spirit of our town and the celebration of our now unified election day in November. Teaneck Voices will try to cover all the local events of this extraordinary and exciting election year!

This Week in Teaneck - July 22 to 28, 2024


If additional information about access and agendas for this week’s public meetings becomes available, we will update our Teaneck Voices website Click Here in RED font


 

Stigma Free Advisory Board – Monday, July 29, 2024 at 6:00 pm via Zoom (Click Here and add passcode 867293) No other information available.


Green Acres Public Hearing on Rte. 4 Bridge Replacement – Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 6:00 pm in the Rodda Center MP-1. For more info Click Here

and see article about this event in this Voices edition


Board of Adjustment (BofA) – Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 7:00 pm in Council Chambers and, though not hybrid, by zoom (url not yet available) and Agenda not yet available. 


Announcements

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

IT Editor: Sarah Fisher

By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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