The monthly Evesham Town Council meeting public portion began almost 30 minutes late this month. After the approval of minutes from prior meetings, the meeting commenced with Police Chief Crew introducing the newest member of the Evesham Police Department, 24 year old Patrolman Nick DiLorenzo, who beat out many other applicants during a long interview process to become the latest officer on duty in Evesham Township. He was joined for the swearing in ceremony by his parents, siblings and his girlfriend. Welcome to Patrolman DiLorenzo!
Chief Crew also accepted a proclamation on behalf of department for the 'Drive Sober and Get Pulled Over' program, for which the department received a grant to fund the operation.
Ordinance 28-12-2017 had its second reading. This ordinance is to rezone a portion of Evesham's Industrial Park for Senior Affordable housing, which I previously documented in a prior blog post. During public comment, Rosemary Bernardi expressed her concern about spot zoning while not considering the entire area surrounding the property in question, raising some of the same issues I raised in my blog post. The location of the triangle plot of land is shown below.
Township Planner Leah Bruder noted that the Planning Board recommended adoption of this ordinance. While it is not entirely consistent with the Master Plan, it does address the Master Plan goal of providing a variety of housing types in town, as well as addressing the need for Senior housing and the duties Evesham has towards providing affordable (FAIR SHARE) housing. There was an emerging opportunity that the town needs to take advantage of while available. She noted that they will be looking at possibly rezoning other parts of the industrial park in the future, and that the area will ultimately be consistent with the Master Plan.
The ordinance was approved 5-0.
Next up was Ordinance 29-12-2017, which is executing an amendment to the previous financial agreement regarding TriTowne Plaza/Renaissance Square. Resident Michael Carroll spoke regarding the PILOT agreement, stating that it would appear that under the agreement, the town stood to earn alot more money than prior to the redevelopment, while the Fire Department and School District would earn less money (despite have new residents and school children), and requested that the Town Council consider a more equitable sharing of the PILOT funds. Under PILOT agreements, 95% of the service fee (the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) goes to the town and 5% to the County. The Fire Department and School District get nothing for the duration of the 20 year PILOT.
There was a lot of back and forth at this point in the meeting (and later on when the subject came up again), so I would recommend watching the video of the hearing. I will try to document what was discussed.
Mayor Brown mentioned that the PILOT is only on the new buildings and that the older buildings will raise in value due to the redevelopment around it, providing the Fire Department and School Board with additional revenue.
Town Manager Tom Czerniecki noted that the majority of roads in the developments in town were paid for by the original developers. Those older roads are now in need of repairs and that the PILOT agreements provide revenue for this maintenance to be completed.
The Mayor asked if the school should give back money if there were no kids in a development. (This is not how property taxes work in New Jersey. Property taxes, whether from residences or business, are split between towns and school districts (and fire departments). This point is frequently brought up at Town Council, but if allowed, it opens up to people being able to opt out of school taxes if they have no children, opt out of some town taxes to pay for roads if they have no car, opt out of federal taxes to pay for the military if they are a pacifist, etc, etc. Good schools benefit all taxpayers, whether they have children or not, as it raises property values and they make the town a desirable place to live. Your taxes go towards town services whether you take advantage of them or not.).
The Mayor also then brought up the 5 year PILOT for the Marlton Gateway Apartments, which as the 5th year is expiring shortly, will provide a windfall in taxes to the schools and relatively few, if any, children. Mr Carroll stated comparing a 5 year PILOT vs a 20 year is apples and oranges, and that unlike Marlton Gateway Apartments, Renaissance will bring children into the district. The Mayor then responded that Renaissance would give "at the most probably looking at 10-15 kids". This quote will come into play later.
Mr Czerniecki stated that they have not been asked by the school board for any revenue sharing arrangement.
Councilman Ken D'Andrea then brought up the topic of tax appeals. During the recession of 2008, property values were depressed, and residents began appealing their tax bills. During an appeal, the town has to pay the legal fees and the town has to reimburse any homeowner their taxes if the appeal is won, while the school district and fire department don't have to repay anything. There were over $1 million is tax appeals lost that came directly from the town coffers. This is indeed a concern for many municipalities across New Jersey, and has been written about by NJ.com.
Mayor Brown then provided a list of bad decisions he felt the school board made over the past several years that cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. As this is not a summary of a school board meeting, I will not enumerate them here.
Rosemary Bernardi spoke next, asking the mayor why he abstained from the the Renaissance vote last month and asked whether he would be abstaining again. The Mayor stated he would be abstaining but that he would not be providing a reason. Councilman D'Andrea stated he was abstaining from the vote because of his relationship with Virtua.
The ordinance passed 3-0-2.
Ordinance 30-12-2017 amended the Land Use Regulations to require developers to fill out a 'Green Development Checklist' as part of the application submission and passed 5-0. Town Manager Czerniecki congratulated the Green Team for this achievement.
Ordinance 31-12-2017 is for a 5 year PILOT with the developer at the old Olga's site. The finished building will be a 3 story building, would serve as a fertility clinic and will probably be valued around $5 million when completed. The ordinance passed 5-0.
There were approximately 10 additional resolutions that were passed, ranging from temporary budgets, to reappointment of risk managers, TPAs and Insurance Brokers, and release of performance guarantees.
The Consent agenda items were then passed as well. The resolution and agenda items can all be viewed here. The only item I want to make mention of is resolution 384-2017, authorizing the town to intervene in the ongoing litigation involving various Kings Grant Community Associations. Many residents of Kings Grant attended a previous council meeting (which I documented here) asking for the town's help in the legal fight. As per Mr Czerniecki, "the town is pursing the best option to affect the Planning Board Vision in the long run."
During the final public comment, Michael Carroll returned to the podium to state "just to set the record straight, I went back and looked. The Sundance study said new public school kids from Renaissance and Barclay Chase is 190. Probably not right, I don't think anyone here thinks thats correct"
Mayor Brown responded "Correct".
So just to be clear, the demographic study being referred to here is from Sundance Associates. This study was commissioned and paid for by the Town Council in their effort to prevent Evans School from closing. During their prior exchange, Mayor Brown stated that Renaissance would have "at the most probably looking at 10-15 kids". But when it was pointed out the Sundance demographic report stated there would be 190 children from Barclay and Renaissance, the Mayor agreed that number was probably incorrect. The Sundance study predicts 87 public school children from Renaissance, not 10-15.
The meeting closed with final words from the Council, mostly consisting of well wishes to all, for everyone to have a nice holiday season. Ms Hackman briefly mentioned changes coming to the dog park that will save the town money. She had briefly mentioned it during the last town council meeting, and since I am a regular patron of the dog park, I was grateful for the change to speak with her afterwards for details. Rather than the current 'poo bags' the town supplies, there will be recycled plastic grocery store bags, saving the town thousands of dollars per year. Who knew those bags were so expensive?
(There were two members of the media at the Town Council meeting, one for the Marlton Sun and one for the Burlington County Times. As of this writing, neither has published an article yet, though look for one soon.)
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