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Preparing for the Planning Board Session on the Draft Master Plan


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

8/12/2024

Contents:

  • Preparing for the Planning Board Session on the Draft Master Plan
  • Monday, August 19 at 7:30 in the Teaneck Library Auditorium
  • The Master Plan, Spot Zoning, Variances, Over-lay Zone, and You
  • Letter to the Editor from Art Vatsky – CSX Safety in the Master Plan
  • Restore Funding to Teaneck’s FORUM for High School Students
  • Mystery Persists on Parkland Replacement for Rte. 4 Project
  • This Week in Teaneck - August 12-18, 2024


Announcements

  • Teaneck Day Weekend – September 7 & 8
  • League of Women Voters – Electoral Forums 


Contacting Teaneck Voices:

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

Preparing for the Planning Board Session on the Draft Master Plan

MONDAY, AUGUST 19 AT 7:30 IN THE TEANECK LIBRARY AUDITORIUM


1) Access the Draft Master Plan, August 2024. You can find it front and center on the opening page of the township website, teanecknj.gov. Click on “Details.” Then click on Teaneck Master Plan 2024 Update - August 2024.


2) There is no Executive Summary (or any Summary or Abstract). To access the meat of the proposed Master Plan:

a) Go to pages 11 – 14 for an overview of the Vision and Goals. There are 4 sets of Goals: Land Use Element with 8 Goals, Economic Element with 3 Goals, Historic Preservation Element with 1 Goal, and Mobility Element with 4 Goals. The 4 sets of Goals are not independent of each other, but are interwoven with each other.

b) Then, turn to page 61 to read each set of Goals and the multiple Objectives under each.


3) HEADS UP IF YOU WANT TO PRINT OUT SECTIONS OF THE DRAFT MASTER PLAN: The first 6 pages of the draft master plan are paginated with lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv,v, vi). Then the document moves to standard numbering (1,2,3….124). So to print specific pages, you need to add 6 to the actual page numbers you want to print. If you want pages 10-15 of the document, you have to ask for pages 16-21 to get the pages numbered 10 through 15. This is because your printer will count pages starting with the first Roman numeral as page 1. (If you ask for pages 10-15, you will get pages 4-9!)


4) How to search the document. In the Master Plan Community Meetings and in response to survey questions, Teaneck residents frequently mentioned topics that they would expect the Master Plan to address. Most of these concerns can be expressed in a single word or phrase. Examples are Cannabis, AINR’s, Auxiliary Dwelling Units (ADUs), Rail Safety, Pedestrian Safety, 6-Story Residential Facilities. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO SEARCH MECHANISM TO ALLOW THE READER TO SEARCH AND LOCATE A TOPIC OF INTEREST. 


There is an answer for those of our readers who have PDF or Adobe capability. You can

  •  Copy the entire draft Master Plan from the Town website to your “Download” file. Then
  • Copy that file address to wherever you keep your data files. Then
  • Open that document and in the upper left-hand top line is an image of a round microscope with dots. THAT IS THE SEARCH/FIND MECHANISM. 


Type in the word/words you want to find, and, voila! You can find whatever you seek! 


As our readers know, Teaneck Voices has voiced our and our readers’ concerns about Areas in Need of Redevelopment (AINRs) so we searched and found what this Draft Master Plan has to say about them. On page 41 through 3 lines on page 43, this draft devotes minimal space to this draconian effort to erase zoning in 9 specific areas of Teaneck.


Recall that AINRs are part of the State’s redevelopment law to name and renovate “blighted” areas (labeled AINRs), a process that wipes out any established zoning and allows the governing body to do essentially whatever it wants.


Not only does the Draft Master Plan include this devious device under the Zoning section of the Plan, but, more importantly, IT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT THE ONGOING AND ALMOST UNIVERSAL OBJECTION OF TOWN RESIDENTS TO THE WHOLE CONCEPT AS EXPRESSED IN THE COMMUNITY MEETINGS, COUNCIL AND PLANNING BOARD GOOD & WELFARE SESSIONS, AND RESPONSES TO SURVEY QUESTIONS.


Of greater note “Redevelopment Areas” as they are called in this draft are treated as if they are the same as established town zones. On pages 41 to top of 43, the draft claims that each of these 9 designated AINR areas has been readily approved by the relevant town entity - and implies that those approvals had received consistent public support. 


An example is the badly distorted citation of the planner’s 2019 State Street Impact Study. 


We ask Town Residents to carefully review these 3 pages of AINR coverage in order to comment on and evaluate the Planning Board answers at the meeting on August 19.


Teaneck Voices will continue to review the Draft Master Plan and may well send out a special edition later this week with issues of concern for us. For today, we have focused on issues and concerns related to the USER-FRIENDLINESS of the document. Here are our recommendations SO FAR:

  • Add Executive Summary – Should include 
  • A paragraph describing present-day Teaneck (mature suburb, almost fully developed, etc.),
  • A Vision for the Teaneck described. The Vision statement on Page 11 could apply to any municipality,
  • brief statement of methodology (community meetings, surveys, etc.),
  • List of Goals with 1-2 sentence Objectives (see 2007 Teaneck Master Plan for example),
  • Place Acknowledgements and Glossaries at the back of the Document, so noted in the Table of Contents
  • Re-paginate the document: remove all Roman numerals and begin the first page as Page #1. This will allow easy selective printing.
  • Caption all photos and provide relevance of each. (Why is the Vision statement illustrated with a banner for Toys for Tots sponsored by the Gooney Bird Detachment of the Marine Corp League and the Marine Reserves flying over an almost unrecognizable shot of Chestnut Avenue?)


Please contact us, at teaneckvoices@gmail.com with any thoughts, comments, or suggestions. We will publish them in next Monday’s issue (August 19) which will reach our readers before the 7:30 pm meeting.

The Master Plan, Spot Zoning, Variances, Over-lay Zone, and You

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ABOUT MASTER PLANS APPEARED IN THE AUGUST 8, 2021 ISSUE OF TEANECK VOICES. WE ARE RE-PUBLISHING IT FOR OUR READERS TO PREPARE FOR REVIEWING THE 2024 DRAFT MASTER PLAN AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO THE PLANNING BOARD ON MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2024:


You’ve found the perfect town for your family! Good public schools, charming houses with nice lawns and appealing landscaping, attractive shopping streets, and a variety of restaurants! You’ve connected with a great realtor! Your realtor really understands you and your family and has shown you several houses that could possibly be your dream house.



Perfect!!


But you have a little niggling feeling that maybe something could change – could a tall apartment building be built down the street? Could a 24-hour convenience store be built on the block? Could someone tear down one of the other charming houses on the street to build a huge house that covers every inch of the lot?


You remember visiting friends in Houston. They had a large beautiful house, but they could reach out their kitchen window and clasp hands with their neighbors if the neighbors were reaching out their kitchen window! And the new light rail stop and convenience store were just four doors down their once beautiful street! Why couldn’t that happen to you?


You share your anxiety with your realtor who assures you, “No need to worry! In our township, we have a Master Plan that establishes zoning, something that Houston does not have. Our Master Plan is basically a social contract between you and the town that establishes what can and cannot be done on any piece of land in this municipality.


Master Plan. A Master Plan represents a Social Contract between a municipality and its residents. It is a document that lays out land, infrastructure, and use requirements for a municipality, to result in a harmonious and sustainable environment for the performance of all their economic and social functions efficiently and effectively. The purpose of a Master Plan is to promote growth and guide and regulate the present and future development of towns and cities. Most importantly, the Plan translates community values, desires, and visions into land use and development principles that can guide the future growth of the community.



A Master Plan is based on inclusive planning. It considers all segments of people in society. A Master Plan leads to a balanced growth of the municipality. It prevents concentration of a particular activity at one place and provides for efficient and equitable distribution of facilities, infrastructure, networks, and housing.


You sigh with relief and proceed to go through the stressful and complicated process of purchasing your dream home. You settle in, plant a garden, join the PTO, and reflect on your good fortune. Two years later you hear that your town Planning Board, with the approval of the Town Council, has decided to build an 8-story apartment building at the end of your block. In a panic, you call your former realtor asking how the Master Plan, your contract with the town, can allow it. Your realtor tells you that the Planning Board has spot-zoned the lot, so even though it is in a single-family residential zone, that lot now allows multistory, multifamily housing.


Spot Zoning Spot zoning in real estate occurs when a small piece of land within a specific zone is zoned for use other than the use designated by the established zone. It is a change in the zoning law for one “spot” of land, for example, spot zoning a parcel in a single-family residential zone for a multifamily structure like an apartment building. This can cause problems because residents may want the area to be allocated only for the designated zone use. 


Spot zoning is an exception to the normal zoning regulations. Spot zoning normally happens when an individual, group, or business entity asks the Planning Board to allow development barred by the zoning originally designed for the area in order to carry out a particular activity. The local government agency must then consider how the proposed zoning exception will affect neighboring properties and decide whether it is in the public interest before approving the exception to the original zoning.


You barely recover from that news, when your next-door neighbors tell you that they are moving. They’ve sold their lovely four-bedroom home to a family that plans to tear the house down and build a seven-bedroom/seven-bathroom home. You invite the newcomers in for coffee, and they show you the blueprints and elevations, which show the new house extending almost lot line to lot line, and just a few feet from the curb. “But you can’t do that,” you say, as pleasantly as you can, “The town has a Master Plan.” “Yes,” they reply. “We’re going to the Board of Adjustment to ask for several variances.” “Variances,” you say. “What are those?” Your new neighbors smile and reply, “Variances are the way to get around the Master Plan.” 


Variances. A variance is a request to deviate from current zoning requirements. If granted, it permits the owner to use the land in a manner not otherwise permitted by the zoning ordinance. It is not a change in the zoning law, but, instead, it is a specific waiver of requirements of the zoning ordinance. In Teaneck, requests for variance are heard and decided by the Board of Adjustment (BOA). In some municipalities, the BOA is called the Zoning Board.


Variances are supposed to be requested and granted when the property owner can demonstrate that existing zoning regulations present a practical difficulty in making use of the property. In reality, variances are often requested to meet the requirements of a spot-zoned structure or to meet an individual’s design wishes.


In Teaneck, the BOA must notify property owners within 200 feet of the property for which a variance has been requested. If there are objections, the BOA may hold a hearing to determine if the variance should be granted.


Upset about the apartment building at the end of the street, and the giant house next door, you develop migraine headaches. A friend recommends you find a doctor from the many on the street opposite the local hospital. “You know,” your friend says, “That street used to be zoned only for single-family residences and small businesses (a B-R zone). But a few years ago, the Planning Board amended the Master Plan to establish a Medical Office Overlay Zone. It's still a B-R zone, but now also allows medical offices.”


Overlay Zones. Overlay zoning is a regulatory tool whereby a special zoning district is created and placed over an existing base zone(s). The overlay zone identifies special provisions in addition to (or instead of) those in the underlying base zone. Regulations or incentives are attached to the overlay district to encourage particular types of development within a special area. The overlay can allow for different uses, higher development intensity, and modified standards, sometimes combined with various bonuses and incentives. 


You make a doctor’s appointment, wondering what value is a Master Plan, a Social Contract, if there are so many ways to “get around” its regulations and requirements.


Let’s step away from our hypothetical “you” to shed some light on this critical question. The Master Plan does establish the basic contract between the town and its residents. It must be rewritten, revised, or reviewed and amended as necessary. However, while our “you” in the story above experienced the bad of the Master Plan get-arounds, there are some beneficial outcomes.


For example, the Teaneck Master Plan allows a driveway to extend only to the line of the front of a house. A resident with several stone steps to his front door requested a variance that would allow him to extend the driveway to a street-level side door near the rear of the house. The reason for the request was an elderly parent living in the house who had difficulty negotiating the front steps. The variance requested was reasonable and understandable. It was to aid the homeowner, without infringing on anyone else’s rights and expectations of the Master Plan.


Similarly, a variance was requested to add one additional rig of pavers around a patio to hold a table and chairs. According to the Master Plan, the additional single ring of pavers would increase the lot coverage to a couple of square feet more than the allowable amount. Again, the quality of life of a family was enhanced by the granting of the variance, without violating the social contract.


Overlay zones like the Medical Office Overlay Zone in the example – a real case here in Teaneck – allows the addition of a benefit to the great majority of the people in town without causing harm to any. It was placed over a zone that already allowed businesses as well as residential uses, so was not imposing something that would not fit in the neighborhood.


However, when it comes to Spot Zoning, it is difficult to find beneficial examples. Spot Zoning by definition means putting something that doesn’t belong there, into a cohesively zoned neighborhood. At the Council meeting on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, the neighbors adjacent to Holy Name Medical Center, spoke at length and emotionally about what is essentially spot-zoning for hospital parking in a single-family residential neighborhood. For those residents, the social contract of the Master Plan has been broken. The neighborhood they moved into, with expectations that it would remain the same, has been radically changed in a way that affects their quality of life and well-being.


At the same Council meeting, the Medical Center presented a plan that would involve requesting that the town amend the Master Plan to create a hospital zone where there is now residential zoning. The present residents would still feel harmed. But new residents moving into the area would have to understand and accept the revised social contract.


The more Teaneck residents understand land use and the various mechanisms and tools of government to determine it, the more those residents will be able to participate in crafting a Master Plan and maintaining the Social Contract.

Letter to the Editor from Art Vatsky – CSX Safety in the Master Plan

I am disappointed by this statement in the draft Master Plan: 


"Train derailments are not identified as a climate change-related hazard. However, there is some concern that train derailments could occur in the Township, in part due to media coverage of major train derailments across the country in recent years. Active train lines pass through the center of Teaneck. Emergency managers should be prepared with a plan in the event that a train derails into a populated or developed area." 


Seems the attitude is, "If it happens, it happens." There are thousands of us at risk 24/7/365.


This Master Plan statement is inadequate. Our fire dept. has been doing derailment response exercises for decades. I trust them. They have been trained and I fear they would have to sacrifice their lives to save us.  

 

Loretta, Paula, and I have been warning the Council for a decade and there has been some education but no progress with CSX and not enough progress with Trenton or Washington. There has been no indication of increased precautions to prevent derailings. There are now about 40 trains per day going through Teaneck. Long trains on three tracks are sometimes partially full of hazardous materials and/or municipal waste.

 

I remind you that your action won't raise our taxes, and won't restrict the capacity of CSX to use this very valuable piece of property that doesn't just "pass through the center of Teaneck." It passes through three miles of Teaneck. It slices our town in half from our North to our South border.

 

My ask to the Planning Board: Please improve this statement in the 2024 Master Plan before you approve it.


Sincerely, 

Art Vatsky, PE

Restore Funding to Teaneck’s FORUM for High School Students

At the Council meeting on August 22, the long-delayed 2024 budget will be presented for a vote by the Council members. We know that there is a 4.99% increase in this budget over last year. We also know that the initially proposed increase was higher because for the past several years Council had depressed the needed expenditures to artificially maintain a 0% increase budget. So the town CFO and Council worked over the last five months to find cuts to that budget. The budget to be presented represents the decisions about what programs and services were to be cut.


Teaneck Voices is still waiting to learn and share with its readers the details of exactly what has been cut from the 2024 budget. But one of the saddest known cuts to the Township’s 2024 Budget is the cut to Teaneck’s FORUM Program for all high school students living in the township from $50,000 to $25,000. For those who have never been introduced to the FORUM, please meet this extraordinary program:


The FORUM stands for Forging Opportunities for Reasoning, Understanding, and Maturity. It is a school-based youth services program with the mission to inspire the positive emotional, physical, social, and academic development of Teaneck's residents enrolled in high school (public, parochial, or private) through comprehensive easily accessible, free services. The FORUM services are:


  • School-Based Counseling

The FORUM offers school-based group, individual, and family counseling as well as referrals to local mental health resources. All counseling services are free of charge and confidential.

 

  • Employment Enrichment Program

The Employment Enrichment program provides Teaneck residents enrolled in high school the opportunity to participate in career development, life skills training, and employment placement. Students may obtain positions in the community and attend workshops on interviewing, resume writing, and goal setting.  

 

  • Strive Academic Support Program

The Strive Academic Support program is designed to assist students who need reinforcement or enrichment in their academic pursuits. The program provides tutoring and supplementary instruction in the areas of homework completion, test preparation, organization, and study skills. Strive is available to all students in grades 9 through 12.  


One special feature of the FORUM is that it provides an employment exchange for students to earn money while providing needed service to members of the community. 


Need your grass mowed or weeds pulled?

             Hire a FORUM student.

Need a spreadsheet made for your local organization?

              Hire a FORUM student

Need your dog walked? Garage cleaned out? Snow shoveled?

              Hire a FORUM student


Many residents, like Voices co-editors, have employed students through the FORUM and not only had careful, thoughtful assistance with numerous tasks but have developed longstanding friendships with the young people referred by the FORUM. Co-editor Toffler recalls seeking spreadsheet assistance for the Haitian Nursing non-profit she co-led. The FORUM referred and fully trained a young woman whose father was Haitian and whose mother was a nurse who not only completed the job professionally but traveled as part of the team to Haiti and assisted with the administration of a nursing workshop in Port-au-Prince. This experience was not unique. The FORUM serves the students and residents of Teaneck in ways that enrich the entire community.


The halving of the Township’s contribution to the FORUM will have a significant impact on the students and residents it has served for so long. Until we better analyze the nature of the budget cuts we cannot make any broad recommendations to restore FORUM monies. BUT, there is a readily available source for replacing the $25,000 cut from the Forum’s grant.


The Lone Council Healthcare Recipient 


From 1964 until 2010, all elected Municipal council members received as a benefit a state-provided healthcare package for themselves and their entire family through the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) see www.njsoa.org. In 2010, the benefits program (C.52: 14-17.25 et seq.) was significantly altered. One change was that municipal council members, who are essentially part-time employees performing under 30 hours a week of work, were no longer eligible for this benefit. The law was written to allow municipalities to “grandfather” serving council members until they were no longer on the Council.


Teaneck has only one councilmember, Deputy Mayor Elie Y. Katz, who has remained on the Teaneck Council continuously since 2010, and thus annually still receives this SHBP package for himself and his family. The present value of the package is between $35,000-$40,000, a cost tucked into the municipal budget under employee benefits.


As well, the SHBP requires each employee to contribute to the cost of their healthcare package. In Teaneck, the contribution is 15% of the base salary. So an employee earning $100,000 annually would be required to contribute $15,000 to the cost of their healthcare. A council member in Teaneck is paid an annual honorarium (salary) of $7,000. So 15% of that amount is $1,050 – the amount the DM Elie Katz pays for almost $40,000 of healthcare for himself and his entire family.


This was not how the 2010 revised SHBP was supposed to work. In many other NJ municipalities, long-term members of council voluntarily gave up this benefit to conform to the intention of the law. In other cases, a majority of the sitting municipal governing boards voted to remove the package from the long-term official. In Teaneck, the yea vote of 4 council members would be sufficient to return approximately $35,000 to the town’s coffers.


And $35,000 would be more than enough to return the $25,000 to assure full funding to the FORUM to benefit ALL Teaneck high school-age young people with a small chunk left over for other benefits for town residents.


Over the past 4 years, Teaneck Voices has frequently highlighted this inequitable municipal benefit. While we cannot ensure that should DM Katz or the Council Majority do the right thing (return this money to the town), the new Manager could allocate the missing $25K to the FORUM. At the Thursday, August 22 public hearing on the budget, the voices of parents, students, teachers, and many other taxpayers might persuade her and the full Council again to fully fund the FORUM which is a benefit to so many.

Mystery Persists on Parkland Replacement for Rte. 4 Project 

Summary: Teaneck residents do not have the required information needed to comment to the Town and to the State concerning the Rte. 4 parkland replacement project by August 15. The Town has formally requested that the State extend that deadline. The Town currently has not located the diversion application it was required to have made public in July. A restart of the entire parkland replacement process is likely. 

The lead article in the August 5 edition of Teaneck Voices (Click Here) reviewed the missing elements required by the State for there to have been a legal public hearing about a proposed diversion of Township Parkland when NJDOT constructs a Route 4 bridge replacement. The township’s application to the State Department of the Environment (DEP) was to have been publicly available before the July 30 public hearing. That application was supposed to have explained both the impact of the parkland being taken and what the Town was proposing NJDOT to provide as a full replacement. The application had not been available before the hearing. And the hearing which was to have followed up that application was to have been called by the Township – but in fact had been noticed in media by NJDOT.


As Voices reported last week, the Town’s required application had not been and was not available – in fact had “gone missing”. And the hearing which was nevertheless held on July 30 was itself deficient. No Town official participated; only NJDOT officials and its contractor spoke. And as Voices learned directly and in writing from DEP last week what NJDOT had itself provided to it and the public had not yet received the required DEP approval. And yet the official notices that had appeared in designated news media and the Town website had specified August 15 as the deadline for public comments on what the Town was proposing for the diversion process. Voices promised its readers we would keep them apprised of the situation. 


Voices learned on August 11 from the Town’s most senior administrative officials the following: The Township cannot confirm if it has submitted the required application (pursuant to NJAC 7:36:26). If it did so when it did so. And substantively what that application said. It has asked the State to delay the current 8/15 public comment deadline. Direct discussions between the Town and DEP (and DOT?) are planned for the week of 8/12. 



Surely managerial retirements and transitions here in Town and vacation schedules at DEP have played a role in all this. Voices continues to focus on making sure residents rights to be informed and heard are protected. We anticipate that public officials locally and in Trenton will continue in good faith to provide accurate information about this situation as they learn it and to ensure that the full regulatory process in NJAC 7:36-26 is honored.

This Week in Teaneck - August 12-18, 2024

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


For the first time since Voices inception, there are NO Public Meetings on this week’s calendar –NONE. The website cites an unexplained Board of Adjustment meeting on Thursday, August 15 – but Voices received notice from the Town’s new Zoning Officer on Friday that the B of A meeting noticed is in error. 


So, readers, that leaves everyone an entire week to work through the draft Master Pan (see the lead article in this edition). Remember there is no more important meeting for all residents to attend than the Planning Board meeting being unusually scheduled for MONDAY, August 19, and being held in the Library Auditorium. See you there!

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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