February 9, 2021 - Borough of Point Pleasant Beach

February 9, 2021 PB Regular Meeting/Master Plan Review minutes

The February 9, 2021 meeting of the Point Pleasant Beach Planning Board opened at 7:00 pm. The Clerk read the notice of compliance with the “Open Public Meetings Act. Present were Board members: Chairman Ritchings, Mr. Woolley, Vice chair Paesano, Vice chair Bixby, Mayor Kanitra, Mr. Calderone, Mr. Cavagnaro and Secretary Mills

Absent: Councilman Migut

Also present – Debra Lawlor, Master Plan – Professional Planner

Hershel Rose, Esq, – Assistant Board Attorney

Dennis Galvin, Esq. – Board attorney

John Mele – Board Engineer

Re-organization meeting

Memorialize minutes – January 12, 2021 –

Motion by Mr. Cavagnaro, second by Chairman Ritchings to memorialize the minutes of January 12, 2021

In favor: Kanitra, Ritchings, Calderone, Cavagnaro, Woolley, Bixby and Mills

Opposed: None

MASTER PLAN REVIEW

Debra Lawlor, Maser consulting is the town Planner, shared Power Point presentation. Maser Consulting has been working with sub-committee to develop the Master Plan Re-Examination report.

Debra Lawlor reviewed requirements and amendments to existing Master Plan.

It was explained recommendations come from suggestions and Board of Adjustments annual reports. One point was electric car charging stations and where they should be located. Reviewed goals and objectives.

A recommendation to create a vision statement and that you find in the amendment that’s being proposed so that’s something that’s being done immediately adding a statement of strategy to the land use element. That’s a newer requirement of the municipal land use law and that again is being added in the amendment that’s being proposed there’s a recommendation to update population and housing demographics in the Community profile. That we’re recommending that you wait until the 2020 census is released and then just update so that you have good census information that you’re working off of for any type of planning work that is done in the municipality recreation element to identify underserved areas. You have before you under a separate ordinance that I believe is coming up at probably one of the next meetings. A step further, looking at an entire historic preservation element for the entire municipality that doesn’t exist, you do have a historic preservation Commission and this is something that adds teeth to your historic preservation efforts in the municipality. Recommendation to prepare a green building and environmental sustainability element, the bones of that were set in the last master plan reexamination and we took what was put in that re exam and turned it into an entire element which is Part of the municipal land use law and that addresses your electric charging stations and some other resiliency efforts and energy. There was a recommendation to update the stormwater management plan element which I believe is pretty much underway and John Mele is working on. In terms of historic preservation, establishing a historic preservation Commission regulation regarding an application process while the historic preservation Commission exists, they don’t really have a process that’s defined when somebody wants to bring something to them, creating an incentivize downtown historic district, we are already working on that. In updating the list of historic sites of significance in terms of circulation there’s a shuttle downtown that we recommend should be publicize so that it gets more use.

The zoning map will be updated to a color map that is easily readable. The map that’s available is in black and white, so we think that updating that to a colorized version would be very helpful.

There are some specific code recommendations regarding revising the Marine commercial zone to allow for some additional uses that would be compatible with the waterfront and complement the existing uses in the area.

We do recommend that you consider potential rezoning and revitalization or redevelopment enhancement for economic development purposes and to look at the aesthetics of some of the sites that are on your unfit and abandoned sites list. To the master plan, I had noted at the beginning that we added a vision statement we updated and consolidated and updated the goals and objectives we added the statement of strategy and we added a brand-new element to green building and environmental sustainability element.

And finally, just the green building element, it was recommended a new 2015 masterplan re exam the green team and sustainable Jersey initiatives were all evaluated. Low impact development and green building practices and techniques are incorporated in there, which are very good at assisting people that are looking at using those and giving them resources, energy is mostly a focus on the electric vehicle charging stations at this time.

Vice Chair Bixby pointed out some typos to the document.

Vice chair Paesano is concerned about the buffering between the parking lots on Ocean Avenue and the residences. He would like to see clear delineation.

Vice chair Bixby commented that in regards to the master plan, if we just made the recommendation, then we can continue this discussion, later on, as you know, with other recommendations as well.

Motion by Mr. Cavagnaro, second by Vice chair Bixby to support and recommend the 2021 Master Plan reexamination report and the Green Building element with modifications and suggestions made this evening.