A triad of 3 important evening meetings – one of which apparently will not be available by zoom – are scheduled this week for Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday nights. Each highlights an issue that was actively debated in the November election. See below for currently known access and agenda details, but briefly here are the issues at stake:
Tuesday’s Council meeting will mark the Ordinance 5-2023 hearing and vote on opening advisory boards as well as discussion and possible action on OPRA and on empaneling the currently non-existent Site Plan Advisory Board.
The Council meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 8:00 pm is Hybrid: In-person at Council Chambers or by zoom access if you Click Here and type in passcode 677717. For the meeting agenda Click Here.
Wednesday at 6 pm is the Cannabis Forum in Gym 2 at the Rodda Center– the first of a promised series of town hall forums where the current status of cannabis and its future zoning and other options will be aired. Just added: the meeting will be now also be available by zoom if you Click Here and type in the passcode 167872
Thursday night’s Planning Board’s main agenda item will be the restart of 2 Holy Name site plan proposals that depend on the disputed Ordinance 22-2022 that defined the new expanded hospital zone.
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Actually, the week begins with another important meeting for those concerned with historic preservation. Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission – Tuesday January 24, 2023 at 7:00 pm by zoom access Click Here and use passcode 589200. Included will be the continuing consideration of the appropriateness of the new owner’s renovation plan for the historical home at 1286 River Road For the meeting agenda, Click Here
Now a closer look at the 3 key meetings & possible resident input
Teaneck Council - Significant Council agenda items.
After the presentations for Police Accreditation and Chief O-Reilly’s Retirement, residents will want to pay close attention to how Council addresses several early meeting issues on:
a. How/whether Council should proceed with empaneling a code-required (but long neglected) Site Plan Review Advisory Board (SPRAB)– an entity needed to improve the haphazard, developer-controlled way the Planning Board currently conducts its site plan hearings. (See earlier Voices stories on this including the 1/8 Voices story on Development Click Here.
b. Whether the resolution on a state commission on OPRA proposed by C. Orgen which is very critical of the current OPRA law will be brought to a Council vote. It is likely that this Council-listed item will not be included in the Consent Agenda. But Voices supports the suggestion that Council reach out for an OPRA update to retired Senator Weinberg who led OPRA reform issues in the legislature for many years. If the resolution has already been turned down, this issue can still be addressed in G&W.
c. The separate public hearing required before Council votes on new ordinances presents an opportunity for residents to weigh in on introduced Ordinance 6-2023 which re-opens advisory boards to the public (Click Here and go to page 41ff of the Council agenda). This is the first policy Ordinance change proposed as promised by the top 3 Council members elected in November.
d. Following G&W, Council will be passing a consent agenda and ordinance introduction that includes a new property revaluation. (Proposed Ord 8-2023 Click Here and go to p. 146)
Residents may want to ask when , how and why the Township is now moving forwards on that “re-val process”.
Cannabis Forum – Wednesday January 25 at 6:00 at Gym 2 in the Rodda Center. See Announcement Flyer – The Council has prepared a resident Cannabis Zoning Survey and is receiving many completed responses to help it better to evaluate current resident views prior to the Forum. The survey is available on the Town website – Click Here .
See the more of the background on Cannabis and the significance of this forum in The New Cannabis – the another Voices story in this edition. Note: The Cannabis Forum is now confirmed to be a hybrid - in-person in Gym 2 of the Rodda Center and by zoom at Click Here with a passcode of 167872.
Planning Board – Thursday January 26, 2023 at 8:00 pm In-person only in Gym 2, Floor 1 of the Rodda Center –
No agenda information whatsoever is available as of 1/22 at 1 pm on the Town website. It is believed that the sole agenda item will be consideration of two NEW Holy Name proposed site plans that would implement provisions of Ordinance 22-2022. the current ordinance governing HN hospital zone expansion. (The process which led to passage of that Ordinance is currently in litigation and actively being considered in court. Developments in that litigation may still affect what the Planning Board does on 1/26).
Otherwise, only very limited information about what will be on the agenda of this PB meeting is found on the required NJ newspaper public notice website. It is most readily available if you click this Voices web address: Click Here
Site Plans? The public has had no current access to the new site plans now proposed by Holy Name. The Board Secretary is not in the office but we are now told that the public can request to see the HNMC proposed site plans prior to the 1-26 meeting. Previous calls to the Building Department had located no way to access these plans.
Note: Recent criticism of the Planning Board’s failure to provide video access may take future PB meetings back to Council Chambers.
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