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Council Ignores Neighborhoods -

Approves A New PILOT

PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

9/3/2023

Contents:


Council Ignores Neighborhoods - Approves A New PILOT


Mammoth Turnout Celebrates New

Senator Loretta Weinberg Band Shell


Where to Track Minutes of Closed Council Subcommittees


This Week in Teaneck - September 11 to 17, 2023


FINALLY - the 2023 User-Friendly Budget Shows Up


Still Waiting - 17 Months of Board of Adjustment Minutes


Announcements


Resident's Master Plan Survey Flyer - now


Bergen County Senior Festival - Van Saun Park - 9/12


March to End Fossil Fuels - 9/17


Meet & Greet Superintendent Spencer - September 28



Contacting Teaneck Voices

COUNCIL IGNORES NEIGHBORHOODS - APPROVES A NEW PILOT


When at its September 5 meeting, Council turned to decisions on introduced ordinances, it heard an unprecedented set of 6 statements by articulate representatives of the newly-formed Coalition of Neighborhood Associations for a Better Teaneck. (see its mission statement in last week's Voices - Click Here.) The Coalition represents four very large and active neighborhood associations all of whom have concerns with Teaneck’s current development policy. 


Those 6 Coalition statements (Click Here move the cursor minute 43 of the zoom tape) made up a powerful case to either turn down or delay action on Ordinance 33-2023 – an ordinance that gives the developer of a very newly-organized lot, 189 The Plaza, a PILOT – a Payment in Lieu of Taxes if it does, as it proposes, construct a 48-unit residential facility (with none of the zone-required retail) in the middle of Teaneck’s most successful retail district.


Somehow Council - led by its zoning subcommittee (see its minutes Click Here) was on 9/5 considering an agreement to give a major tax break to that developer having already concluded (in accord with the prior Council) that that property was blighted and in need of urban renewal.  Why was never explained.


As speaker after speaker explained why a PILOT ordinance should not be approved, the large group of residents in attendance expressed their agreement. And then the six “neighborhood” reps were joined by 10 of the 12 other residents who spoke. They provided explanations and data – particularly focused on how the PILOT would not fund public schools – to buttress the case against the PILOT ordinance. (Clara Williams later directly challenged a Council member claim that this PILOT had been in any way considered or approved by the Board of Education - Click Here and move cursor to 3hr&15min of zoom video).


When Council began its own discussions of 33-2023 it quickly gave over the floor to an extensive Q & A with two town consultants (the redevelopment attorney and a financial accountant) who had in two prior public meetings convinced most of the residents with whom Voices has discussed it, that they hold very pro-redevelopment positions that are very different from the majority views of Teaneck voters (a majority best seen in the 2022 Council voting totals - and not in the anecdotal claims on 9/5 by CM's Organ and Schwartz that their individual ad hoc discussions with residents better assess what really are majority resident views.)


Council did then move to its vote (6-0) to approve the PILOT ordinance. (DM Katz had long-since w/o explanation recused himself from votes involving this property ).


If Council had expected its arguments and those of the consultants to change the positions among the 4 neighborhood associations it now definitely appears that it has miscalculated. Voices expects Council to hear a great deal- in various fora – about this decision.



MAMMOTH TURNOUT CELEBRATES

THE SENATOR LORETTA WEINBERG BAND SHELL


If you have not already filled out the new resident’s Master Plan survey, go find it in our Announcement section at the conclusion of this Voices edition.

You deserve a seat at the table – and need to help Council understand what development decisions and timetables would allow that to happen! 

Where to Track Minutes of Teaneck's Closed Council Subcommittees

Teaneck Voices is beginning a new post on its website (Click Here) on which we will seek to locate – and provide – the published minutes of the Teaneck Council’s various subcommittees. Such minutes are a relatively new phenomenon in Teaneck municipal governance. 


To Voices’ knowledge, no minutes existed until the Zoning Subcommittee (ZSC) recently began the practice of publishing minutes but always embedding them somewhere in the Agenda Packet of Council meetings just 24 hours or less before the Council meeting which followed a subcommittee meeting.

 

Voices has just recently (8/28) published its concerns about the work and procedures of Teaneck Council subcommittees – and most particularly its Zoning Subcommittee. (Click Here and check article “The ‘Secret’ of Where Teaneck’s Development and Redevelopment Ideas Come From”). But given the significant role played by these Subcommittees, Voices believes its readership should be able to go to a place where they can track what subcommittees themselves now say they are doing. These ,minutes represent a tiny strep toward transparency.

 

Therefore, as noted, Voices has just started publishing what Council subcommittee minutes it has found and placed them in chronological order with the latest minutes first. At the moment there are minutes for two subcommittees – the cannabis and zoning subcommittee – and Voices will in subsequent editions seek to expand our search for those minutes.

 

BACKGROUND: Council’s various Subcommittees meet and function in very different ways – the general rules for which have never been codified in the Town Code.

They do, however, have two common characteristics. 1) Their meetings are closed to the public and 2) may be attended by no more than 3 Council members – since if a 4th attended, that would mean a quorum existed. And there are very strict rules (primarily found in the state’s Open Public Meetings Act-OPMA) about governing board public access and participation, pre-meeting agenda publication, and the timing of meeting minutes.



Subcommittees do not, of course, have the power to make any decision reserved for the Council and are thus only supposed to make recommendations to the full Council. Do the subcommittee minutes reflect subcommittee member awareness of the limited role these subcommittees are permitted to play? 

This Week in Teaneck - 9/11 to 17, 2023


As is too often the case, information about several Town meetings is again this week spotty and incomplete. If Voices locates additional access, agenda and minutes information about these public meetings during the week, that information will be placed on the teaneckvoices.com website at (Click Here)


This Week in Teaneck – September 11-17, 2023


Social Services Advisory Board (SSAB) – Monday, September 11, 2023 at 11:30 am

·        None of the required access, agenda and prior minutes information for this meeting were ever provided on the website.


Bergen County Annual Senior Festival – Tuesday September 12, 2023 from 10 AM-2 PM at Van Saun Park

·      Senior Township transportation to Van Saun Park for Senior Festival;

THE TOWNSHIP OF TEANECK HAS SECURED A BUS TO TRANSPORT SENIORS TO AND FROM THE EVENT. ANY SENIOR NEEDING TRANSPORTATION TO VAN SAUN PARK IS ASKED TO MEET IN THE RODDA CENTER PARKING LOT AT 9:15 AM. THE BUS WILL LEAVE FOR VAN SAUN PARK AT 9:30 AM AND RETURN PASSENGERS TO THE RODDA CENTER AT NOON. A SECOND SHUTTLE IS SCHEDULED TO LEAVE THE RODDA CENTER AT 12:15 PM AND RETURN AT 2:00 PM.

PLEASE CALL 201-837-7130 TO REGISTER FOR TRANSPORTATION.


Cedar Lane Management Group – Wednesday September 13, 2023 at 6:30. In-person meeting at 555 Cedar Lane Suite 4


Board of Education Workshop Meeting – Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 8:00 pm – by zoom only

·       However, as of the 9/11 afternoon for this Zoom-only webinar (Zoom info to make comments or ask questions was still To Be Posted; For Livestream (no questions): To Be Posted; For the Agenda: To Be Posted”

 

Planning Board Thursday September 14, 2023 at 8:00 pm at the Council Chambers and available (without interactive zoom) on the internet (but that internet Access address is not yet available).

 

Board Attorney Kelly had announced (8/24) that no additional notification to the public would be provided about this meeting’s HNMC application – and he was right. It is not !! However, the primary purpose of this PB meeting is to begin consideration of the Holy Name proposed site plan 2202-13 for a “temporary parking lot” application – to be located at the corner of Cedar Lane and Chadwick Road. The only information on the website about that application is found at Click Here – where it is embedded (p. 11-48) within the agenda packet for PB’s 10/27/2022 (yes an October 2022!) meeting -

If you believe that having to review agenda information from 11+months ago that is embedded in a PB agenda packet from the final quarter of 2022 in order to have ANY Information about this agenda & application is  completely non-transparent, do know that Teaneck Voices is in total agreement with your sentiments!



FINALLY -

THE 2023 TOWNSHIP USER-FRIENDLY BUDGET ARRIVES

FINALLY, after our persistent efforts, success.


This week the Township Website finally published Teaneck User-Friendly Budget for 2023. It can now be found on the Finance Departments Budget pages (Click Here) It should have been available immediately after Council adopted the budget this Spring according to state regulation.


It is well-recognized that the format required by the State for municipal budget submissions is virtually impenetrable – and provides the lay person with almost none of the ready answers they would ask about how and where their municipality is getting its revenue and how it intends to spend it.


The the Local Government Services component of the state’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA) oversees compliance with the User-Friendly budget and the regulations that govern the format and timing of this much more accessible way for residents to understand their town’s budget. Check it out.

Still Waiting: Board of Adjustment Mtg. Minutes

The Township's website needs a major redesign - and the Manager says the Town may soon select a contractor.. But in the meantime we depend on it for information we can obtain nowhere else.


Case in Point: We have not had meeting minutes for Board of Adjustment meetings posted on the website since April 7, 2022 - 17month ago!


During that 17-month period the Board of Adjustment has made MANY KEY DECISIONS. But the public has no way of knowing what they are and what is upcoming.


Voices has pressed both the Building Department and the Clerk's office to get this issue addressed. We have repeatedly been told it is for them - as it is for us - a priority.


But we are STILL WAITING!

ANNOUNCEMENTS


Click Here

August 2023 Master Plan Community Input Survey Flyer; or


Responda a la encuesta de opinión comunitaria del Plan 


Contacting Teaneck Voices


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

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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