Plannng Board

City of Trenton Planning Board Conference and Public Hearing Thursday, June 9, 2022 Via Microsoft Teams or phone: 609-436-9298 The Conference ID is 412 046 968# Members in Attendance: Dan Fatton, Chair Jamie Carpenter Markus Green Anthony Santora Charles Romanow Members Not in Attendance: John McBride, Vice Chair Randy Baum Jeff Halpern Joe Harrison Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed Wanda Swiggett Staff in Attendance: Jeffrey Wilkerson, Supervising Planner Stephani Register, Principal Planner George McGill, Planning Board Attorney Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary PUBLIC HEARING Current Planning Board Membership (as of 6/9/22) Class Term Ending Date Board Member I (Mayor’s Representative) Mayor’s Term Markus Green II (City Employee) 12/31/22 Anthony Santora III (City Council 12/31/22 Joe Harrison Representative) IV (City Resident) 12/31/22 Patricia Ni’ma- Mohammed IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Randy Baum IV (City Resident) 12/31/25 Jeff Halpern IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Dan Fatton IV (City Resident) 12/31/25 Jamie Carpenter IV (City Resident) 12/31/22 John McBride ALTERNATES IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Wanda Swiggett IV (City Resident) 12/31/22 Charles Romanow A quorum was verified and the meeting was called to order at 6:03pm by Mr. Fatton. 1 Approve the Minutes 5/12/22 Member Aye Nay Ab-stain Motioned Seconded Dan Fatton, Chair X Jamie Carpenter X X Markus Green X Anthony Santora X Charles Romanow X X Memorialize Resolution 2022-9 for the property at 200 Hamilton Ave once amending it for the dollar amount that the Applicant agreed to contribute to the Open Space fund. Member Aye Nay Ab-stain Motioned Seconded Dan Fatton, Chair X X Jamie Carpenter X Markus Green X Anthony Santora X X Charles Romanow X ITEM #1 21-P-537SC:537 South Clinton Avenue- TRENTON NJ Applicant/Owner seeks preliminary and final site plan approval,(c) bulk variance for minimum rear yard size, and lot consolidation to enlarge an existing, vacant building and convert to a restaurant. Construction will include a 410 square foot addition at the rear, a 500 square foot second story addition, and a 270 square foot loft space in the attic. The Site is located in the Business B Zoning District and in the Roebling Gateway Redevelopment Plan Area; Location 537 South Clinton Avenue; City Tax Map: Block(s)15801, Lot(s)7,8,&9; Applicant: Jorge Chacon, 55 Endicott Road, Hamilton, NJ08690. Mr. Edward Hunter, Esq. requested another adjournment because of the Engineer’s health concerns preventing him from joining participating in the hearing. Adjourn 21-P-537SC:537 South Clinton Avenue until the Public Hearing of 6/23/22 at 6pm on this platform Member Aye Nay Ab-stain Motioned Seconded Dan Fatton, Chair X Jamie Carpenter X X Markus Green X Anthony Santora X Charles Romanow X X Joe Harrison X Case called at 6:11pm 2 ITEM #3 Presentation: Resilient NJ Plan New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is providing resilience planning technical assistance to Trenton as part of the Resilient NJ: Municipal Assistance Program. Representatives of the DEP consultant team will present the Scope of Work and Engagement Plan for the project to the Planning Board. The public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. Mr. Kolber introduced the team that is working on the Resiliency Plan that is being created in partnership with the Department of Environmental Protection. Ms. Alisa Goren provided the background on the program and described that she would be providing information on Trenton’s vulnerability assessment. The work is being funded through a grant from NOAA. Trenton will be able to set the scope and pace of the work being one of the first to go through the process. She described the Community Engagement plans that will gather information and data and allow discussion of the information that is gathered at each stage of the process. This will help prioritize action and where best to communicate and implement the tasks identified in the planning process. This information will live on a website that can be linked to the Trenton’s websites as well as the Trenton250 website that communicates to the community. The City does not have the software to host the GIS function so the website has to be hosted outside of the City’s website. Looking at the broad impact of climate change, not just heat and storm flooding. This will consider how a community’s social groups will be impacted and how commercial, residential, and industrial industries will also be impacted and what tools exist and can be adapted to help in these areas. Where to get help and support will also be identified. July 21, 2022 at 6pm is the first public meeting that is scheduled. There will be notice provided to the community partners and an invitation extended to join a virtual meeting. Case called at 6:30pm ITEM #2 North Trenton/Battle Monument CHOICE Neighborhood Plan Planning Board will consider the adoption of the North Trenton/Battle Monument CHOICE Neighborhood Plan as an official document of the City’s master plan – Trenton250. The purpose of the North Trenton/Battle Monument CHOICE Neighborhood Plan is to provide a policy framework and action agenda for transforming the neighborhood to be a safe, family-friendly, mixed-income neighborhood. The plan leverages its unique neighborhood assets— commercial corridors, opportunity sites, schools, parks, churches, and service providers; its proximity to adjacent assets - Downtown Trenton, Capital Health, and Ewing Township; and its human capital— youth, resident leaders, entrepreneurs, and business owners, to build on the legacy of this historic community. It is anticipated that the implementation of identified early actions will happen over the next two years. A copy of the North Trenton/Battle Monument CHOICE Neighborhood Plan is now available for public inspection at the Division of Planning’s office at City Hall, 319 East State Street, Trenton, NJ, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday, and available on the Trenton Housing Authority’s website https://www.tha-nj.org/choice-neighborhoods-planning-initiative/. A copy of the North Trenton/Battle Monument CHOICE Neighborhood Plan has been filed with the Mercer County’s Planning Board and the Clerk of each adjoining municipality – Hamilton, Lawrence, and Ewing. 3 Mr. Kolber indicated that this plan was not originally planned to be part of the Trenton250 Master Plan but as the plan developed and the changes to the MLUL and the vision of the Donnelly Homes residents was captured, it made it clear that it could be part of the Trenton250. This plan has been adopted by HUD so it is not able to be changed at this time. Therefore, the Planning Board will make a straight up or down vote on accepting this plan to be part of the Trenton250 Master Plan. Ms. Chrysti Huff, the HOPE 6 Coordinator, provided an overview of the plan and described where the funds to do the planning originated from in order to support the partnership and planning activities. Trenton was one of 4 grantees in the nation for this planning grant. Isles managed the people plan, the City the neighborhood plan, and the Housing Authority managed the housing plan. She described the adaptive reuse that is planned for Junior 1, the leadership series that was provided to the community, and the engagement activities undertaken to learn from the community in order to shape future plans for the area. She noted that they hope to attract new businesses, new restaurant, have mixed income housing, create homeownership opportunities, slow down the vacancies and deterioration of the buildings in the area, make the area walkable, and increase safety. They are looking to open up the street grid as it there is currently only one way in and one way out of the area. The green space and outdoor play areas for children are also looking to be increased. There will be a streetscape project that will address the sidewalks. City of Trenton has a program to help address improvements that are needed inside homes. The façade improvement program through the HOME CHOICE program has increased the income eligibility access funds to 120% of annual median income. Ms. Huff noted that the Athing Mu Park that was proposed cannot be built on the site selected as that location is slated for development, so the ideas from that planning effort will be incorporated into the other two park plans that are proposed in this CHOICE Neighborhood plan. The Board suggested that ArtWorks be approached about being a partner as they have a public art program that might be helpful with the public art portion of this plan. The construction in this plan will be LEED certified. Mr. Kolber indicated that this plan is largely aligned with the Master Plan with the exception that the MLK Corridor in the Master Plan is a residential corridor but the residents would like it to be a commercial corridor. Therefore where there is a conflict with the Master Plan this neighborhood plan will take precedence. Mr. Fatton asked if there was anyone present who wanted to speak on this matter. To amend the Master Plan to include this neighborhood plan Member Aye Nay Ab-stain Motioned Seconded Dan Fatton, Chair X X Jamie Carpenter X Markus Green X Anthony Santora X Charles Romanow X Joe Harrison X X 4 The final version of a letter that the Planning Board members signed was circulated this afternoon. Anthony Santora will verify that the ArtWalk Application was submitted for consideration for funding. Anthony Santora reported that the person leading the implementation for stations installed for the charging of Electric Vehicles has been out but her work has moved forward and an update can be provided later. Adjourned at 7:11pm Respectfully submitted Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary 5