Plannng Board

City of Trenton Planning Board Conference and Public Hearing Thursday, January 12, 2023 Via Microsoft Teams or phone: 609-436-9298 The Conference ID is 412 046 968# Members in Attendance: Randy Baum, Jamie Carpenter Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed Charles Romanow Anthony Santora Wanda Swiggett Adam Weiss Members Not in Attendance: Markus Green Jeff Halpern Staff in Attendance: Jeffrey Wilkerson, Supervising Planner George McGill, Planning Board Attorney Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary PUBLIC HEARING Current Planning Board Membership (as of 1/12/23) Class Term Ending Date Board Member I (Mayor’s Representative) Mayor’s Term Markus Green II (City Employee) 12/31/23 Anthony Santora III (City Council 12/31/23 Vacant Representative) IV (City Resident) 12/31/26 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 Adam Weiss IV (City Resident) 12/31/25 Jamie Carpenter IV (City Resident) 12/31/26 Charles Romanow ALTERNATES IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Wanda Swiggett IV (City Resident) 12/31/24 VACANT The meeting was called to order at 6:04pm. Mr. McGill read the Open Public Meetings Act and a quorum was verified. 1 Ms. Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed, Mr. Charlie Romanow, Mr. Anthony Santora, and Mr. Adam Weiss were sworn in. Ms. Ni’ma-Mohammed nominated Charles Romanow for Chair. Ms. Carpenter second the motion and all were in favor. Ms. Ni’ma-Mohammed nominated Randy Baum for Vice Chair. Mr. Romanow seconded the motion and all were in favor. Ms. Ni’ma-Mohammed nominated Cherry Oakley to be Recording and Corresponding Secretary. Ms. Swigget seconded the motion and all were in favor. Ms. Ni’ma-Mohammed made a motion to adopt the 2023 meeting calendar with the amended dates that moved the Public Hearings from August 9 to August 10 and August 23rd to August 24. Ms. Swiggett second at the motion all were in favor. Mr. Santora made the motion to adopt the Times of Trenton and the Trentonian as the official news papers of the Board. Ms. Carpenter seconded and all were in favor. Mr. Santora made a motion to approve McGill Hall as the Board’s attorney. Mr. Romanow second the motion and all were in favor. Mr. Santora made a motion to appoint Brightview as the traffic engineers for the Board. Ms. Ni’ma-Mohammed second the motion and all were in favor. Mr. Romanow made a motion to appoint CME as the Board’s engineers Mr. Baum second the motion and all were in favor. Mr. Baum made a motion to appoint Taylor Design as the Board’s Landscape Architect and Planner. Mr. Romanow seconded the motion and all were in favor. Mr. Jeffrey Wilkerson introduced the new Housing and Economic Development Director for the City, Mr. Willard Stanback. Mr. Stanback described his background and what he hopes to do in supporting the Board in the future. Mr. Michael Kolber described potential community engagement opportunity to be held January 26, 2023. He noted that there will be an additional opportunity for community engagement around the Trenton Green Team to be held January 25, 2023. Mr. Kolber noted that within 18 months of joining the Board each member must have the requisite training. The New Jersey Planning Officials has the information about available trainings on their website and any board members that do not have the requisite training can go there to find out what they need and how to register for said training. Mr. McGill, Mr. Kolber, and Mr. Wilkerson explained the letter that was distributed to the 2 Board for its consideration on educating City Council, and any other interested parties, on what powers and responsibilities lay with the Planning Board specific to redevelopment and assessment evaluations by ordinance and law. Mr. Kolber noted that such education is needed because last year an ordinance was initiated to try to remove the responsibility from the Planning Board of doing the assessments for redevelopment and that continues to remain in limbo. That detail may be added to the letter once Mr. McGill reviews that specific matter. Mr. Wilkerson announced that he will be leaving the City of Trenton for a new opportunity. Mr. Kolber describe the current status of the review of the city’s land ordinance and he noted that there is a calendar of community engagement activities and the plans for how they will engage stakeholders in finalizing the draft in 2023. For adoption, the City Council will need to issue an ordinance requiring the Planning Board to review the final draft for adoption and it is hoped that there will be a final adoption in August of this year. This would be the result after four years of effort. Mr. McGill noted that the Planning Board does a review for consistency with the Master Plan. Mr. Kolber presented a review of the year and began with the accomplishments of the Board such as passing the Complete Streets Plan and hearing the Bellevue Avenue Redevelopment Plan. On 26 January there is a plan for the Board to hear about the redevelopment plans that are in process with a focus on Lamberton and Ewing-Carroll-Southard Street neighborhoods; Roebling Complex, Roebling Station, and Cass Street, which are less to defined neighborhoods but will be addressed at the Planning Board hearing on the 26th. The downtown redevelopment plan is being addressed by DCA for the City of Trenton. The plan will go forward without changing the boundaries that area. City Council tabled the amendments to Central East Redevelopment Plan indefinitely so they continue to be in limbo. If the current developer that wants to work in that area does not want to go forward the City may still continue to move forward with updates to the redevelopment plans. There is a community gardens plan that the City has been working with Isles on and the plan is to have Isles lead the work on the community gardens this year. Mr. Kolber reviewed the awards received this year by the City for its plan work. Mr. Kolber reviewed the RFP process that the City used to get the Board’s professionals. He noted a new RFP process for Capital Improvement Plan will need to be done and with the issuing of the same RFP a second time it is hoped that there will be more respondents. The City is working on figuring out the group that will implement the Complete Streets ordinance. There will be a goal to take the deaths and injuries from traffic to 0 by 2035 or by 2030. The City has entered into a partnership with Fremont County in Fremont municipality in California to learn from each other and work on this together. The City will be seeking a City Council resolution and an administrative action from the State to you accomplish this. 3 The City is also working on a comprehensive trail network and a citywide path plan. There has been a grant application submitted to to the US DOT to restart the Route 29 plan. There will be additional opportunities for funding if the grant application is not successful. This plan also adds Waterfront Park. New Jersey Transit had a public information conference and came up with an alternative plan for the transportation section of the public information session. Perry Street corridor is not yet moving forward there, but there is a preliminary concept for that area. Trenton has an intersection that is considered to be the most dangerous in America based on the number of people that have died there. There have been some for preliminary improvements with signaling added to that area but there will be some additional planning effort around that intersection. New Jersey DOT has not provided an update to neither the City nor the County as of yet, but it remains a priority for the City. The intersection is Route 129 and Lalor Street. There will be a high injury network created for the City. It appears that most of the injuries that happen within Trenton occur on only 16% of its streets. Art walk is stalled currently. The City is looking to restart a conversation with Artworks by having communication with the new Director. New Jersey DOT is entering into preliminary planning conversations for the bridge over Canal Street. They are looking to do a complete work rehab and are looking to preserve the historical structure, but it will be reinforced for safety. The South Street bridge project has been taken over by the County. They are moving into final designs for the bridge. The County is trying to move into final design for the Lincoln Avenue bridge as well. The Board continues to be concerned about what will happen with the pipes on this bridge as there has been thoughts of placing them on the side of the bridge. For the Olden Avenue bridge the State is looking to do design plans. The Municipal Resilience Plan was started in Spring of 2022, along with a Vulnerability Assessment and are looking to complete these this summer. The City received money for facilitation of community engagement and the next one will be on February 22 and will be a community conversation that will be focused on engaging anyone who is living on The Island. The City did not receive FEMA assistance for its crosswalk and disability accessibility assessment. There is some assistance that is coming from DEP. The City will announce that it received has LEED silver certification for overall performance. This is the highest that can be attained. Gold certification can be obtained for very specific projects but not for overall performance. There has been a lot of institutional support for the Green Team but the City would like for it to be more Community driven. There will be communication coming out over the next few days on 4 this. The Board is encouraged to help get the word out so there could be more community engagement. An Energy Audit has been completed on all municipal buildings except the parks department. The City is prioritizing these last four buildings and are awaiting final confirmation that those audits can proceed. There is a Health and Respiratory Evaluation in the works for the City it should be published in the next few weeks. Air Quality monitors have been installed inside and outside the city so that in a year there will be good information about the City’s air quality with which to plan for. There is so much underway within the City that the City is likely years away from applying for more grants. Once Mr. Wilkerson leaves the City there will only be one Planner in the department for the forseeable future so Michael reviewed his priorities with managing the work, managing the grants, reporting required for them, and managing the development application process. Mr. Kolber noted that the City will be leaning on the Board to be very diligent in the review of applications that are coming forward in these leaner staff times. Adjourned 7:33pm Respectfully submitted Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary 5