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Updated: TRIAD OF "MUST" MEETINGS FOR REFORM-SUPPORTERS

THIS WEEK IN TEANECK 1-23 TO 29 2023


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

1/23/2023

Contents


Updated: Triad of “Must” Meetings for Reform-supporters

           This Week in Teaneck 1/23 to 29 2023

New: How to Participate in Teaneck's Zoom Meetings

The New Cannabis

Most Residents Eligible for NJ’s New ANCHOR Program

Another Word About Chickens


Announcements


Cannabis Forum – Rodda - 1/25/2023

College Road Trip – St. Marks - 1/28/2023

ANCHOR Snip – NJ Taxation - 2/28/2023


Contacting Teaneck Voices

Updated: Triad of “Must” Meetings for Reform-supporters

        This Week in Teaneck 1/23 to 29 2023

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.


  • 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.

How to Participate in Teaneck’s Zoom Meetings


A number of Teaneck Voices readers have told us that they do not participate from home in the public input portions of various Teaneck’s meetings because they do not know how to do so.


Some indicate that they watch Council on television -  Channel 47. But that currently only works for Council meetings, not for the land use boards or the historic preservation or environmental commissions.  

This article is in two parts: 1) Getting Selected for Input when you are into the zoom meeting; and 2) How to Get to a Town Zoom meeting itself.


1)   Getting Selected for Input on Zoom once you are “into” the meeting by zoom.


The way that someone watching on zoom “tells” the meeting’s zoom manager that he/she wants to make a public input is virtually the same for all meetings.


At the bottom of your zoom screen there is always a button titled Reaction. – If you press that button, it will give you the option to Raise Hand. Press that button and wait.


When (if) you are selected for your input, you will hear your name (for example: “bringing in Joe Jones”) or see a notice cross your zoom screen indicating that you are allowed in.

You must then look to the bottom left of the screen where you will see the words sound and video with a slash (/) indicating they are muted. You must click both in order to be seen and heard. Note: sometimes these unmute words also appears in the upper right hand of your own picture.

 

Ask if you can be heard. You will be answered.  Then you are set – for the 3 minute input.


Actually, getting selected for input is the simpler part! You have to get to the meeting via the internet first – and there things get more complicated


2)   Getting to a Zoom Meeting:


The first thing to know is that the Town’s different boards and entities which operate under the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) use different zoom systems and one (the Planning Board) is currently not using internet [zoom] at all. 


For Council, you not only must know the specific web address but in addition must type in the 6-number passcode and enter your own email address before you are ”let in” to the zoom meeting .  You will usually find both the Council’s zoom address and the specific passcode # on the Town website calendar and on Voices’ in This Week in Teaneck”.


Note: Council has this far continued to conduct its public inputs as hybrid – both in person and on zoom. Its agendas specify where in the meeting schedule those public inputs will occur.


Unfortunately, there are differences among the other entities as to when and how they will allow public comment or questions.


The Board of Adjustment currently conducts all its meetings ONLY by zoom.[no in-person] It announces public input on specific hearing issues during the course of its long meetings – but when is unpredictable. Good and Welfare (G&W) input happens only at the end of the BofA meeting (which varies dramatically).


The Planning Board since October is allowing only in-person input and is recording its meetings only by audio (not videotaped.) That procedure is under current review and criticism. But the 1/26 meeting is apparently Rodda only.


The Environmental Commission (operating only by zoom) opens Good & Welfare at the very start of its meetings. The Historic Preservation Commission (also zoom only) opens its meetings to the public only at the conclusion of its meetings.  

The specific meeting zoom addresses – and when called for, the 6-number passcode, should always be found on the Town website’s calendar well in advance - but frequently is not. That information  should also then be found at the beginning of the meeting agenda (on the Town website go upper left and click to Government, then Click Council and Click minutes/agendas and look for the specific entity whose meeting you want to know about.) . More often than not, if the agenda is there, the zoom address is there too, but is not clickable. Next option:  Teaneck Voices has typically put  that zoom information up in readily clickable form every week.


Please Note If you found this article tedious and confusing, you are not alone. Transparently conducting the Town’s business – and actually welcoming public input - remains a “work-in-progress”. 

The New Cannabis

  • Pot, grass, weed, mary jane – whatever you called it.


  • Our parents were terrified we would smoke it or, god forbid, sell it.


  • We were terrified our kids would smoke it or, god forbid, sell it.


  • Young men, mostly Black, were incarcerated at a phenomenal rate for lengthy prison terms because of it.


  • Whatever you called it, it was BAD!


Now we call it by its botanical name: Cannabis: Cannabis refers to a group of three plants with psychoactive properties, known as Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. When the flowers of these plants are harvested and dried, you’re left with one of the most common drugs in the world.


And now, with the State of New Jersey’s blessing, its use is allowed not only for medical purposes - made legal first in California in 1996 – but for recreational purposes, for fun and relaxation.


In 2020, NJ voted by referendum to legalize recreational marijuana. Most state residents cheered the decision. However,  a vote for the state legalizing marijuana was not necessarily a vote to have cannabis facilities in one’s own town.


When the state voted to legalize recreational marijuana, it then gave municipalities the option of whether to opt in or out of allowing Cannabis businesses in their town. In 2021, Teaneck’s Council chose to opt in to allow for cannabis businesses.


So, the challenge of implementation was and is tremendous. Not only is it necessary to figure out how to produce, transform/manufacture, distribute, and sell a once banned substance as you would any product depending on the conversion of raw material to usable items. It is also imperative to change the mindset of the public from the criminality of marijuana to the idea of recreational consumption like ice cream, junk food and alcohol. A huge challenge.


Teaneck now faces this challenge.


The State has established a Cannabis Regulatory Commission, nj.gov/cannabis, which lays out the laws and regulations by which opt-in municipalities must organize and implement their cannabis activities. But the municipality must create this new product and associated businesses according to the needs and wants of its residents.


Happily, our newly elected Council is engaging all of us residents in making the critical decisions that will allow Teaneck to establish and grow a responsible, thriving cannabis industry to benefit the new business owners and new customers.


The first step is the Township Cannabis Zoning Survey. At the time that Teaneck opted in, the pre- 2023 Council decided the zoning for Cannabis was to be the newly developed Alfred Avenue. At present, Alfred Avenue is the only area of Teaneck zoned for recreational cannabis. However, discussions around town have suggested that certain activities involved in producing and selling recreational cannabis might better serve the public if zoned elsewhere.


HAVE YOU COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED THE TOWNSHIP CANNABIS ZONING SURVEY?


If not, go to the Teaneck Township website, teanecknj.gov , fill out the survey and press Submit. It will take you about 8-10 minutes to complete. The Council plans to be guided by the residents’ choices to avoid both NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) or jealousy among the business districts at one area being chosen over another.


THEN, COME TO THE TEANECK CANNABIS FORUM – A TOWN HALL ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023 AT 6PM at THE RODDA CENTER, GYM 2 - or by zoom - TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS.


There will be presentations by a panel of subject matter experts from the industry as well as legal, security, educational personnel and licensees.


PLEASE SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO Cannabis@teanecknj.gov YOU WILL ALSO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ASK QUESTIONS AT THE TOWN HALL FORUM.


This Town Hall Forum is part of the new era of cooperation between the leadership of Teaneck and all of us constituents. Let’s welcome it with a fantastic turnout!

Most Residents Eligible for NJ’s New ANCHOR Program


ANCHOR (Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters) is the new state tax relief program available to most home owners and renters who were residents in 2019 and whose incomes on a sliding scale make them eligible for a sliding scale of payments – most of which will come from the State as direct bank deposits or checks later in the Spring. A lower income makes you eligible for a larger payment.



The deadline for applying for this program is February 28, 2023 . Although the application process is relatively simple every Teaneck resident should review now their eligibility and the application rules that apply to them.


Where can you review all you need to know about ANCHOR? This time the State’s Taxation Department has prepared a relatively user-friendly source of information which residents can access if they Google ANCHOR Program NJ or Click Here. 

Another Word About Chickens

We asked our readers last week to weigh in on the Backyard Chickens discussion. Indeed, although we did not get enough readers response to suggest that we have the basis for announcing statistics, we did get some very strong responses on both sides of the issue and some reader support for the creation of a central chicken farm.


Unclear where this discussion and any Council action goes from here. But clearly this Town’s residents think that there are rights at stake – whether that means the right to have or the right not to have chickens in Teaneck.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Contacting Teaneck Voices


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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