After the presentation of the 2026 budget concluded during April 27th's Council Meeting, the Mayor and Council resumed the remainder of the meeting.

Multi-Family Homes

The first order of business was the public hearing for Ordinance 2026-1341: "An Ordinance Amending Chapter 31 (Zoning) so as To Update Regulations on Multi-Family Uses". Before the Ordinance was voted on, the public hearing was opened for residents to ask questions.

A resident stood up to express a few concerns about the Ordinance and how it was written.

The resident felt like this Ordinance should have went to the Land Use Board before Council considered final adoption. They highlighted that the Ordinance itself says, in Section VII, that before adoption the Clerk must send it to the Land Use Board for consistency review and that the Board then has 35 days after referral to issue a report identifying any inconsistencies with the Master Plan and making any recommendations.

The resident asked if this Ordinance did go in front of the Land Use Board as they had attended the April meeting and it was "not brought up". The resident felt the Ordinance was going beyond what the title suggests.

The resident laid out several concerns with the wording of the Ordinance including concerns that the wording of the Ordinance appears to remove two-family dwellings and townhouses as permitted uses in the "R" Residential zone altogether, and the removal of "actual standards" such as lot size, impervious coverage, and on-site parking.

Their concern was that the Ordinance as drafted was not clear and because of that, they asked Council to not adopt this, and to send it to the Land Use Board for review and a clear recommendation.

After the resident spoke, Business Administrator Gabriella Siboni spoke to inform the resident that the Land Use Board did hold a special meeting "last week" to vote on this Ordinance. It appeared to be a surprise to the resident that a special meeting took place.

The Mayor spoke to address the resident's concern that this Ordinance was to address "an oversight in the Master Plan" from about two years ago that kept a single family home (on a single family lot) from having to come back to the Land Use Board if they wanted to convert it to a two family home.

The Mayor referenced a property on Kennedy Boulevard where they were granted for two-single family homes, but because of this "miss" the owner was able to convert one into a two-family which is not ideal for this location, as there is no on-street parking.

Meeting Public Notices

After the resident's time was up (someone on the dais set a timer which beeped), another resident got up to express their concern that the special Land Use Board meeting was not communicated nor was an agenda posted. The resident asked if anyone from the public was even at this special meeting.

Administrator Siboni said it was noticed, and indicated there is a page on the Borough's website where this was posted. The resident was concerned that by putting these types of notices on a webpage without a way to notify the public is not acceptable.

Administrator Siboni indicated there is a "notify me" option on the site to alert when something is added.

A Fire Inspector Position Eliminated

The remainder of the meeting was uneventful. The Mayor and Council moved into a short closed session. Upon exiting the closed session, the Mayor indicated there was a motion from the floor and Councilwoman Camacho read the following into the record.

"A decision came out of Policy, Planning and Personnel to eliminate the part time position of fire inspector of Joseph Gullia to be effective immediately. The decision was made strictly for financial reasons, and budgetary reasons." Councilwoman Camacho stated.

The Mayor called for a motion to adopt, which passed unanimously, and after seeing no one from the public wishing to speak about this motion when asked, the meeting was adjourned.

The next meeting of the Mayor and Council is scheduled for Monday, May 11th at 7pm. The public is encouraged to attend.