Planning Board - Special Meeting

1 1 CITY OF UNION CITY HUDSON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY 2 PLANNING BOARD 3 : SPECIAL MEETING : TRANSCRIPT OF 4 : --------------------: RECORDED PROCEEDINGS 5 6 Union City High School Media Center 7 2500 Kennedy Boulevard Union City, New Jersey 8 9 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2025 Commencing at 6:00 p.m. 10 11 M E M B E R S P R E S E N T: 12 ALEJANDRO VELAZQUEZ, Chairperson YDALIA GENAO 13 ALICIA MOREJON CAROLINA FERNANDEZ 14 FRANKLIN MEDINA JOSE GUARENO, Alternate #1 15 HECTOR OSEGUERA, Alternate #2 16 M E M B E R S A B S E N T: 17 BRIAN T. STACK, Mayor CELIN J. VALDIVIA, Commissioner 18 A L S O P R E S E N T: 19 BRIAN CHEWCASKIE, ESQ. (Via Phone) 20 Board Counsel 21 CARLOS VALLEJO, Board Secretary 22 DAVID SPATZ, P.P. 23 JOHN BARREE, Planner 24 SUSAN BISCHOFF CCR CO. 25 201-390-0583 SBischoffccr@yahoo.com  2 1 I N D E X 2 PAGE 3 CALL TO ORDER 3 4 SALUTE TO FLAG 3 5 ROLL CALL 4 6 HEARINGS 5 Final Teamsters Redevelopment plan 7 ADJOURNMENT 8 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25  3 1 MR. VALLEJO: May I have your attention, 2 please. Please take notice that on Tuesday, 3 February 11, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., a special meeting 4 for the City of Union City Planning Board to be 5 held in the Union City High School located at 2500 6 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Union City, New Jersey. 7 Opening statement: This meeting is 8 called in compliance with Chapter 231 Public Law 9 1975 of the Open Public Meeting Act. Adequate 10 notice of this meeting has been provided as 11 follows: Notice of this meeting setting forth the 12 time, date, location, the agenda to the extent 13 known, was forwarded to The Record, The Star 14 Ledger, and has been posted on the bulletin board 15 in city hall and has been made available to the 16 public in the office of the municipal clerk. 17 Before we call roll for this evening's 18 meeting, could everybody kindly rise to salute the 19 flag, please. 20 21 (Whereupon, the Pledge of Allegiance was 22 recited.) 23 24 MR. VALLEJO: Thank you. 25  4 1 ROLL CALL: 2 3 MR. VALLEJO: Roll call for tonight's 4 meeting. Mayor Stack is absent. 5 Mr. Velazquez. 6 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Here. 7 MR. VALLEJO: Commissioner Valdivia is 8 absent. 9 Ms. Genao. 10 MS. GENAO: Yes. 11 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Morejon. 12 MS. MOREJON: Yes. 13 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Fernandez. 14 MS. FERNANDEZ: Yes. 15 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Medina. 16 MR. MEDINA: Yes. 17 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Guareno. 18 MR. GUARENO: Yes. 19 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Oseguera. 20 MR. OSEGUERA: Yes. 21 MR. VALLEJO: Let the record indicate 22 seven present, we have a full quorum for tonight's 23 meeting. 24 25  5 1 HEARINGS/APPLICATIONS: 2 FINAL TEAMSTERS REDEVELOPMENT PLAN: 3 4 MR. VALLEJO: We don't have any previous 5 minutes to adopt. Let's move to the agenda, 6 redevelopment plan, Mr. Chewcaskie, please. 7 MR. CHEWCASKIE: Okay. So if I may, Mr. 8 Chairman, the City acquired the Teamsters building 9 at 707 Summit Avenue. The intention was that the 10 sight be redeveloped for which would include a 11 portion of affordable housing. The area was 12 declared an area in need of redevelopment by the 13 Board of Commissioners on the recommendation of 14 the Planning Board. The next step would be the 15 adoption of a redevelopment plan. Heyer Gruel and 16 Associates has prepared the Teamsters 17 Redevelopment Plan and that plan is in front of 18 you this evening from January 27, 2025. The 19 Commissioners introduced that ordinance on 20 February 4, 2025, and it is slated for adoption on 21 February 18th. 22 Prior to the adoption, there must be a 23 review and recommendation of the Planning Board 24 with respect to the ordinance and consistency with 25 the master plan. That's basically what needs to  6 1 be done. I believe if I'm correct, Mr. Barree is 2 there? 3 MR. BARREE: I am. 4 MR. CHEWCASKIE: All right, so if there 5 are any specific questions about the plan, 6 certainly they could be relayed to Mr. Barree. 7 But basically the intention of this plan is to 8 preserve the building, preserve the architectural 9 characteristics, and develop the site primarily 10 for affordable housing in a manner that it would 11 qualify for state funding. So that's where we're 12 at, so unless there are no questions of Mr. 13 Barree, a motion would be appropriate that the 14 Board has reviewed it and recommends adoption of 15 the redevelopment plan to the Board of 16 Commissioners. 17 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Yeah, let's 18 adopt it. 19 MR. VALLEJO: Okay. 20 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Everybody knows 21 this building that the City is acquiring is the 22 Teamster's building for affordable housing. It's 23 a great asset to the City. It's almost a 24 historical building and I think we're going have a 25 beautiful development done there for affordable  7 1 housing, for low income residents. So this is a 2 great project. Do I have anybody from the public 3 here? 4 MR. VALLEJO: No. 5 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: No. I make a 6 motion to adopt. 7 MS. MOREJON: Second. 8 MR. VALLEJO: Motion to adopt by Mr. 9 Velazquez. Seconded by Ms. Morejon. Roll call on 10 the motion. Mr. Velazquez. 11 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Yes. 12 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Genao. 13 MS. GENAO: Yes. 14 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Guareno. 15 MR. GUARENO: Yes. 16 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Fernandez. 17 MS. FERNANDEZ: Yes. 18 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Medina. 19 MR. MEDINA: Yes. 20 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Morejon. 21 MS. MOREJON: Yes. 22 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Oseguera. 23 MR. OSEGUERA: Yes. 24 MR. VALLEJO: Seven in favor, motion 25 carries.  8 1 ADJOURNMENT: 2 3 MR. VALLEJO: There being no other 4 application on tonight's agenda, can I have a 5 motion to close? 6 MR. GUARENO: I make a motion. 7 MR. VALLEJO: Motion by Mr. Guareno. 8 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Second. 9 MR. VALLEJO: Second by Mr. Velazquez. 10 Roll call on the motion to close the meeting. 11 Mr. Velazquez. 12 CHAIRPERSON VELAZQUEZ: Yes. 13 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Genao. 14 MS. GENAO: Yes. 15 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Morejon. 16 MS. MOREJON: Yes. 17 MR. VALLEJO: Ms. Fernandez. 18 MS. FERNANDEZ: Yes. 19 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Medina. 20 MR. MEDINA: Yes. 21 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Guareno. 22 MR. GUARENO: Yes. 23 MR. VALLEJO: Mr. Oseguera. 24 MR. OSEGUERA: Yes. 25 MR. VALLEJO: Seven in favor motion  9 1 carries. Let the record show that the meeting has 2 ended. Thank you and good night, everyone. 3 4 (Whereupon the meeting was adjourned at 5 6:10 p.m.) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25  10 1 C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 4 5 6 I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing is a 7 true and accurate transcript of the testimony and 8 proceedings as taken stenographically by me at the 9 time, place, and on the date hereinbefore set 10 forth. 11 12 13 14 SUSAN BISCHOFF, CCR, RPR LICENSE NO. 30XI00233700 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25