1 1 2 3 4 5 6 TOWNSHIP OF BLOOMFIELD SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 7 REDEVELOPMENT PUBLIC FORUM III JANUARY 30, 2008 8 7 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - MUNICIPAL PLAZA 9 10 11 Transcribed By: Carol Ann Shepard, CSR 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 * * * MONIQUE VOUTHOURIS 23 Certified Court Reporter 50 Copeland Road 24 Denville, New Jersey 07834 973-361-9134 * 973-361-2042 25 mvouthouris@optonline.net 2 1 (Salute to the flag.) 2 MAYOR MC CARTHY: Roll call. 3 (Roll call taken.) 4 MAYOR MC CARTHY: Good evening, 5 everyone. Again, thank you for coming. This is our 6 third meeting in regard to the downtown, and what we 7 will be doing is we are going to be separating this 8 into two sections right now. 9 Following this, we will have a very 10 short proposal on the parking proposal presentation, 11 and then open up it for comment. We ask that you -- 12 recognize, keep your comments strictly to the 13 parking proposal, and we will have a second part to 14 this. 15 I believe in timing, we will keep it 16 under five minutes, and we will end that at 7:30. 17 So what I would like to do, without any further to 18 do, here is (inaudible.) 19 MR. GIOSA: Is that better? 20 My name is Gerry Giosa. I am a parking 21 consultant and a principal with Level G Associates, 22 which is a firm that specializes in conducting 23 parking studies. 24 I was engaged by the Bloomfield Parking 25 Authority to specifically study parking in downtown 3 1 Bloomfield. 2 What you are about to see is an 3 abridged version of the parking study that I worked 4 on, and before I get into the details of it, I would 5 just like to tell you a couple of things about 6 parking decks. 7 First of all, parking decks are needed 8 to support redevelopment initiatives in a downtown 9 area, because you don't want to pave over huge areas 10 of your downtown with parking lots. 11 So parking decks enable us to condense 12 the parking supply and allow the land to be 13 redeveloped in a much more exciting fashion than 14 parking. 15 But the second thing is that the 16 current thinking in Bloomfield is that a parking 17 deck is needed to support redevelopment, and you are 18 going to hear about the redevelopment piece from Art 19 and Mike, you have been hearing about it in the past 20 couple public sessions, as well. 21 And, also, the parking deck will be 22 needed to ease current parking shortages, because 23 there is a parking crunch, to an extent, in 24 Bloomfield today, and a parking deck will help to 25 ease those problems. 4 1 You are going to see some plans and 2 some concepts, and I just want to say that none of 3 these concepts or plans are etched in stone. 4 There will be a process after we 5 continue forward where there will be dialogues 6 between different parties, and the plans will 7 evolve. 8 I want to give you a quick example. 9 A few years ago I did a very, very, 10 similar study in Morristown, New Jersey, and I 11 presented some plans very similar to the plans you 12 are about to see. 13 And the end result is, the (inaudible) 14 redevelopment, which is happening currently just a 15 block off the green, and it is actually right on 16 South Park Street. 17 And, after that parking study was 18 submitted, there was a series of meetings with the 19 redevelopers, professionals, with the town, with the 20 public, with SHPO, with a number of agencies that 21 shaped and molded the plans that eventually were 22 almost nothing like the plans that were originally 23 submitted. But it is all part of the process to 24 kind of get things started, and to get parking 25 located in the right place. 5 1 So the purpose of the parking study was 2 to determine the most appropriate sites for a 3 parking deck development in downtown Bloomfield, and 4 the purpose of this presentation is to explain the 5 process and the rationale used to develop the 6 recommended parking deck sites. 7 I am here to answer any questions that 8 you might have, and I am also here to receive 9 feedback, and we are interested in what you have to 10 say. 11 The process started with an initial 12 screening of sites. We came up with 14 sites in 13 downtown Bloomfield that could be good candidates 14 for parking deck development. 15 The sites were selected based on their 16 size, their location, and their proximity to 17 activity centers. 18 Of these 14 sites, a group -- the first 19 group were decks that were located strictly on 20 municipal land. 21 The next grouping were decks that were 22 on municipal land, but we had to relocate a street 23 in order to get a good workable dimension for a 24 parking deck. 25 The next grouping were decks on 6 1 municipal land and some adjacent properties would be 2 required to purchase in order to get a workable site 3 dimension. 4 And the last grouping of sites were 5 decks that could be part of a potential 6 redevelopment package that happened to be under 7 consideration at the time of the study. 8 The chart you see in front of you is 9 the 14 sites listed. When it comes to parking 10 garages, you know, the size of the footprint is very 11 important. 12 You need a footprint that is going to 13 generate enough parking spaces on a per-level basis, 14 and you need a site that is going to be efficient in 15 terms of square feet per car. 16 So you can see here that we have the 17 sites listed, the number of spaces per level, and if 18 we were to develop a five-level deck, you will see 19 that site number 8 that we looked at, we could get 20 well over 1,000 spaces, and some of the other sites, 21 like this site number 6, it was a small site. If we 22 did a five-level deck there, we could only get 390. 23 So now we start to distinguish one site 24 from the other, which is a good site, which is a bad 25 site, which offers the most opportunities, and so 7 1 forth. 2 These are the 14 sites, and you can 3 see, you know, based on the groupings that I 4 discussed earlier, most of them are grouped around 5 existing municipal parking lots. 6 So, generally, the process is you have 7 a municipal lot, it becomes a candidate for a 8 parking deck development. 9 But not all of the municipal lots have 10 the workable dimension to develop a parking deck. 11 So you will see the first grouping of 12 sites here around the Farrand Street lot. Here is 13 -- just for orientation, here is the train station, 14 here is six points, Bloomfield Avenue, and the town 15 hall, which ends right here. 16 So the first grouping of sites were 17 around the Farrand Street lot. 18 The next grouping of sites, the Royal 19 Theater lot and the Bloomfield annex lot on the 20 corner. 21 The next grouping of sites, the 22 Lackawanna lot. 23 The next grouping of sites, the Conger 24 Street lot. 25 We had a deck plan on the current 8 1 square lot that is right next to us, and also 2 incorporating the grass park on the corner. 3 The next site was the Washington Street 4 lot across the street, and the last site was a 5 possible redevelopment package that we understood 6 was under consideration in this area. 7 So these were the sites that we looked 8 at, and we determined what the parking deck 9 development potential was on each of them. 10 I'm watching the clock, Mayor. 11 So now the goal was to get from these 12 14 sites and get it down to 6. 13 Certain sites, you know, as I said, 14 were better than others, you know, better for 15 parking deck development. 16 So the first round consensus was that 17 the strongest sites were located between Bloomfield 18 Avenue and the train station. 19 It was understood that parking 20 deficiencies were greatest in the area between the 21 train station and Bloomfield Avenue. 22 A parking deck located between the rail 23 corridor and Bloomfield Avenue can support both the 24 train station and the central business district. 25 That was a key finding in our study, as 9 1 well as from the public outreach session that 2 happened in this very room. 3 So that was kind of the general 4 consensus of the first round. 5 And if this looks familiar to you, this 6 is one of the boards that was placed around the 7 room, and the question was where is the most 8 convenient parking. 9 You will recall we had green dots where 10 folks went around and put a green dot as to where 11 they thought the most convenient parking was. 12 I apologize, I flipped this board 13 upside down so it is oriented in the same direction 14 as the rest of my slides. 15 But you will see, here is the rail 16 corridor, here is Bloomfield Avenue. All the dots 17 pretty much ended up in between the rail corridor 18 and Bloomfield Avenue. 19 Here is a large grouping of lots in the 20 Royal Theater lot, the Farrand Street lot, and the 21 biggest grouping of dots in the Lackawanna lot. 22 Conger just had a few. And there were 23 dots located on the other side of Bloomfield Avenue, 24 but clearly not as many as in the corridor that we 25 are talking about. 10 1 In terms of those dots, 72.4 percent 2 were placed between Bloomfield Avenue and the rail 3 station. 4 Of those 72.4 percent, 44 percent were 5 placed in the Lackawanna lot, 25 percent in the 6 Royal Theater lot, 25 percent in the Farrand Street 7 lot, and 5.6 percent lot in the Conger Street lot. 8 So now we are fine tuning our efforts, 9 and we are getting closer to what the most 10 appropriate sites are for parking deck development. 11 These were the original block-outs that 12 were used in our analysis. 13 These block-outs have evolved since the 14 original site screening. Okay? 15 They were shaped by input from the 16 Bloomfield Parking Authority, they were shaped by 17 input from the public meetings that we had here, 18 they were shaped with input from Mike Saltzman and 19 Art Linfante and the staffs of Newwork and Value 20 Research Group; and we developed six functional 21 plans on sites located between the train station and 22 Bloomfield Avenue. Four of the plans were for the 23 Royal Theater lot, Farrand area, and two were in the 24 Lackawanna lot area. 25 I am going to quickly go through the 11 1 six sites that -- there were more detailed 2 functional plans that accompanied these block-outs 3 that you are about to see, but this we will get 4 across where the parking deck sites were. 5 The first one was located between 6 Farrand Street and Bloomfield Avenue. 7 As you can see, we used a portion of 8 the Royal Theater lot here and here. 9 But, in order to get -- you know, 10 parking garages like to be square and efficient, in 11 order so that we can keep the capital spending to 12 develop it at a reasonable level. Parking garages 13 generally are costing from 18 to $21,000 per space 14 to construct. So you want them to be efficient. So 15 that's why you will see a lot of these shapes are 16 rectangular, square, or close to it. 17 So this was the first site we looked at 18 that looked promising, because it had conductivity 19 between the train station area and Bloomfield 20 Avenue. 21 These red out parcels -- we are calling 22 them out parcels, but they are actually areas that 23 could be redeveloped or partially redeveloped, or in 24 the case like the Farrand Street lot, could possibly 25 have redevelopment happen in the front part of the 12 1 site and a parking deck occur at some later date in 2 the rear of the site. 3 Again, think back to Morristown. 4 The original plans got pushed, shoved, 5 changed, another property became available, other 6 professionals weighed in on what they thought could 7 occur until a final plan was developed that was just 8 a home run, and it made sense for everybody. 9 We are hoping that same thing is going 10 to happen here. 11 The next plan we look at, we had a 12 parking deck that spans Farrand Street, so we don't 13 have to worry about any utility relocations. 14 Again, this plan is all on 15 municipally-owned property. Okay? 16 The previous plan, if I could just go 17 back to it, would require us to negotiate and 18 purchase property of an adjacent land owner. 19 This one, again, all on municipal plan; 20 however, our rectangle is bent, it is going to make 21 the deck a little more inefficient. 22 The next one, we thought about possibly 23 relocating Farrand Street, having it meet up with 24 Lackawanna, and put a parking deck in this location. 25 This was a plan that works out for a 13 1 redevelopment potential because the deck gets 2 wrapped by redevelopment, it is partially hidden, 3 but the capacity potential on this deck was not as 4 good as the others, 552. So this -- also, we are 5 going to absorb the costs, the sum costs of 6 relocating Farrand Street. 7 And just other ideas that have been 8 bandied about, there is talk about possibly this 9 might be a good location for a traffic circle, to do 10 either traffic calming or to help move traffic in a 11 more efficient fashion. 12 But, eventually, traffic studies are 13 going to be developed, and looked into for 14 alternatives that include that sort of thing. 15 Here is another option where Farrand 16 Street is truncated here, and this portion is used 17 to feed the deck in and out, and a new street is 18 created as an extension of Ward that would work into 19 Lackawanna or possibly a traffic circle. 20 Here is a deck that gets chopped off. 21 Okay? But it is fairly efficient. And you can see 22 the possible redevelopment parcels around and on the 23 other side of the street here. 24 The next parking deck is located around 25 the Lackawanna lot, and you can see that this plan, 14 1 again, the concept is connecting the train station 2 and the shopping district, having a deck that serves 3 them both. 4 This deck is directly across the street 5 from the train station, and then has these kind of 6 two wonderful collection points and distribution 7 points for pedestrians to circulate into the 8 downtown via Glenwood and Washington, just a few 9 steps from the six points. 10 So this deck offers opportunity as well 11 for connectivity and for possible redevelopment on 12 the out parcels. 13 And the final option -- Im going to run 14 over, Mayor, sorry -- is a slightly narrower plan, 15 but what that does is it makes the redevelopment 16 parcels a little bigger, and it actually brings 17 these collection distribution points even closer to 18 the six points. 19 So those were the six plans. 20 These last two plans offer the greatest 21 opportunity for parking capacity, around 1,000 22 spaces, or even 1100 spaces. 23 So having that sort of flexibility can 24 give us a wide range of opportunities for 25 redevelopment that could be explored. 15 1 The final capacity will be developed 2 over time. It is not necessary to pick a target 3 capacity today. 4 We are just looking for the best site. 5 So now we took these six sites, and we 6 are going to use these comparison criteria to try to 7 figure out which one is the best. 8 So the ten criteria are as follows -- 9 I will read them through -- the proximity to areas 10 deficient in parking. 11 These are all things I have touched on 12 as we have gotten to this point. 13 The capacity potential of the site. 14 The efficiency of the parking 15 structure. 16 The proximity to the train station. 17 Proximity to CBD shopping district. 18 The ease of site assembly, will we need 19 adjacent properties or not, do we have to relocate a 20 street, and so forth. 21 Circulation access, ingress, egress. 22 Can we get cars in and out of the site easily, 23 pedestrians in and out of the site easily. 24 Are the sites consistent with the 25 public outreach program? 16 1 How do the sites work in terms of their 2 ability to integrate with redevelopment and create 3 value in the downtown area? 4 And what are the parking and traffic 5 impacts during construction? 6 We don't want to develop a site that's 7 going to create a huge hardship for circulation and 8 parking options while the thing is under 9 construction. 10 So, in order to compare these, we used 11 a widely-accepted plan, what we call a goal 12 achievement matrix, and we formatted the six sites 13 along the left side, and the ten selection criteria, 14 and each site was ranked using a system where four 15 is excellent, three is good, two is fair, one is 16 poor, and zero is a fatal flaw, in other words, the 17 site would have such a terrible feature to it that 18 you would immediately negate it as a possibility, 19 but we don't have any of those here. 20 So the first criteria, proximity to 21 areas deficient in parking, they were all excellent. 22 That's why they made the first cut. 23 The capacity potential, you can see the 24 last two have excellent opportunities for capacity, 25 the others not so good. 17 1 Efficiency of the structure, again 2 those large parking decks, large kind of square 3 parking decks, very efficient, your best square feet 4 per car. You are going to get the most bang for 5 your buck on a deck like that. 6 Proximity to the strain station, all 7 pretty excellent. 8 Same with the CBD and shopping 9 district. 10 Ease of site assembly, you will see 11 that the plans that where we require additional 12 adjacent properties scored lower than the plans that 13 were strictly on municipal plan. 14 Circulation access, ingress and egress, 15 were all pretty good. 16 Consistency with the public outreach, 17 again, the Lackawanna lot was the clear favorite in 18 the public outreach process for parking deck 19 development, so those scored excellent, the others 20 good. 21 The ability to integrate with 22 redevelopment and create value. 23 I reviewed these numbers with Mike 24 Saltzman and Art in terms of how redevelopment can 25 fit in with the parking deck; and, again, the 18 1 Lackawanna lot plans, in their minds, offer the best 2 opportunity and flexibility for redevelopment 3 options. 4 And, finally, the parking and traffic 5 impacts during construction. 6 These plans, you know, over in the 7 Royal Theater lot area would have required a lot of 8 parking spaces to be put down, street closures, and 9 so forth; whereas, the Lackawanna plans, the 10 construction areas would be pretty contained, you 11 would be able to put your construction trailers on 12 the site, and keep the streets open. 13 So the Lackawanna lot deck site scored 14 the highest out of the six, and that was the basic 15 conclusion of our study, and this was presented to 16 the Parking Authority, and that's basically the 17 conclusions of our study to this point. 18 There's still a ways to go. 19 MAYOR MC CARTHY: At this time 20 (inaudible.) 21 (Blank portion of tape.) 22 MR. VOICE: ... on this location. 23 Have you calculated the percentage of 24 (inaudible) parking lot (inaudible)? 25 MR. GIOSA: Again, we haven't worked 19 1 out the specifics of working -- this was really a 2 site study. 3 When we get to the capacity part of it, 4 we assume that there is going to be a one-to-one 5 replacement of the current commuter spaces, probably 6 more. We don't know how many more. 7 We are in preliminary discussions with 8 New Jersey Transit that they might participate and 9 add a level or two to the deck. 10 So we want to be able to get as many 11 commuters in the deck as possible. 12 We want to be able to accommodate all 13 categories that we are going to need. 14 MR. VOICE: The reason for my question 15 (inaudible) I would presume this would be 16 (inaudible) might very well get 75 percent of the 17 parking lot taken by commuters. 18 I was wondering how that would affect 19 downtown. 20 MR. GIOSA: Well, there are ways that 21 we can control the flow of commuters, how many 22 commuters are in the deck or not. 23 Whether it is open to residents outside 24 of Bloomfield or just Bloomfield residents. 25 There is only going to be a finite 20 1 demand. 2 But we will work on the demand numbers 3 more as the process continues. 4 But the idea is that this deck is not 5 going to be a commuter deck, not filled with 6 commuters. There is going to room be room in here 7 for downtown employees, shoppers, and any demand 8 that is going to be generated by the redevelopment. 9 All those numbers will be calculated 10 and then part of the process and presented. 11 MAYOR MC CARTHY: Okay. 12 MR. VOICE: My name is Roy (inaudible.) 13 I have just a few questions. 14 One is, do we have (inaudible) will all 15 be congregating in that area, so the streets will be 16 congested (inaudible) that will take some congestion 17 away from the (inaudible) and also distributes 18 pedestrian traffic across Bloomfield Avenue that 19 particularly awkward intersection, you would have 20 some people parking (inaudible.) 21 MR. GIOSA: We do have for an 22 additional (inaudible) Broad Street in some areas 23 near Watchung or (inaudible) which that type -- what 24 happens was (inaudible.) 25 That is one place to help the commuter. 21 1 MR. VOICE: Thank you. 2 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible) I have a couple 3 of questions. 4 What was the proposed height of the 5 parking garages you are talking about. 6 MR. GIOSA: Just so we can compare the 7 capacity potential of the different decks, we 8 assumed that they were each developed to five 9 levels, which would be grade plus four supported 10 levels, and the floors are about 10 feet apart, so 11 the top deck would be at an elevation plus 40, but 12 there would be a parapet wall around the top. So we 13 are assuming that top deck would be at approximately 14 plus 43, 43 feet. And we are also assuming, as you 15 saw in some of the plans, that they would be 16 screened and hidden by redevelopment buildings that 17 would occur around them. 18 MR. VOICE: The second question is, one 19 of the areas that you focused on was the municipal 20 lot that is on the east corner of the site there 21 closest to the train station. (/TPHAUD) is there a 22 reason that was omitted out of the study areas? 23 MR. GIOSA: Was that just the Farrand 24 Street lot? 25 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) Yeah. The lot 22 1 that is shown (inaudible) the approximate portions 2 of the lots that are shown in other places. 3 MR. GIOSA: Correct. That lot would 4 really only serve the train station and not so much 5 the Bloomfield Avenue and the shopping district. 6 The sites that were in these locations 7 really gave us the connectivity for a shared parking 8 deck, a deck that could be shared by shoppers and 9 downtown employees, as well as commuters, where this 10 didn't relate as well to Bloomfield Avenue, Broad 11 Street, and the six points, as the other sites did. 12 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 13 MR. GIOSA: Right. Because they were 14 stretching or attempting to stretch in that 15 direction to get a pedestrian access. 16 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 17 MR. GIOSA: We are looking at 18 pedestrian access here. The arrival of the deck is 19 here. 20 And that's the basic reason for that. 21 MR. VOICE: The last question. 22 (Inaudible.) 23 MR. GIOSA: I can E-mail a copy, or I 24 could make it available on the website. Sure. No 25 problem. 23 1 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 2 MR. GIOSA: Right. 3 MR. VOICE: Also (inaudible.) 4 MR. GIOSA: Not to the extent of the 5 Farrand Street lot. The Farrand Street lot is 209 6 spaces. So if you put the deck there, and the first 7 209 spaces that you build are simply -- 8 MR. VOICE: Right. But in the process 9 of construction of any of the lots (inaudible.) 10 MR. GIOSA: I'm sorry. Say that again. 11 MR. VOICE: I am just trying to 12 (inaudible) some other sites where you are crossing 13 over Farrand Street. (Inaudible.) 14 MR. GIOSA: Not the full 209. It would 15 be a lower number. Okay? 16 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 17 MR. GIOSA: Anywhere from two to five 18 years. You know, I mean, really, depending on how 19 the process, you know, progresses, if everything 20 clicks and moves, that parking lot could be open in 21 two years. 22 MS. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 23 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 24 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible) 15 years. The 25 last 8 years (inaudible) purchase price 24 1 notwithstanding the addition of the (inaudible.) 2 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 3 (Applause.) 4 MS. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 5 MR. GIOSA: The cost would go up 6 expedientially any time you go underground. If we 7 average out at 19,000 a space for construction of 8 the deck, for underground parking that number is 9 approximately double, 38,000 a space for the 10 underground ones. 11 But we can -- it is possible to sink it 12 down, you know, soil conditions permitting. We can 13 look at that. 14 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 15 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible) the one thing 16 that everyone wants to know, the legislation for the 17 (inaudible) I will defer until March so that the 18 Parking Authority (inaudible) at the end of the day 19 actually (inaudible.) 20 Anyone else? 21 Michael. 22 MR. SALTZMAN: All right. Michael 23 Saltzman. Many of you have been to the previous 24 public meetings. For those of you who haven't, I am 25 with Newwork. You saw our name mentioned a few 25 1 times. We are a consultant working with Value 2 Research. Art Linfante is here, and a number of 3 other members of our team are here today. 4 What we are going to be talking to you 5 about today is public workshop number 3. 6 You heard a little bit about -- today 7 about one -- the first public workshop actually from 8 Gerry, and I just want to make a couple comments 9 overall, and then I will explain to you some of the 10 results of the previous public workshop, and then I 11 will tell you about what we are going to be doing 12 tonight. 13 I guess first just about what you saw 14 on the parking. 15 First off, I think we are all very 16 happy that we have Gerry here working in town. 17 He mentioned Morristown. Another one 18 of the key case study towns for very good 19 redevelopment and how parking is integral to that, 20 one of the two is Bloomfield and the other one is 21 New Brunswick. 22 For those of you have seen those towns, 23 those are towns that really they started parking 24 authorities, and the parking authorities have been 25 integral to redevelopment processes, and that's what 26 1 we are talking about here. 2 It is very, very key because we all 3 learn that parking is really the biggest challenge 4 in redevelopment. And so we have to work, as 5 representatives of the town, in partnership with the 6 Parking Authority and you all to come up with the 7 best solution for parking. 8 Parking is now a public issue. It is a 9 public problem, because in order to get the 10 redevelopment going, parking is key to that. 11 And I also had the benefit of working 12 with Gerry down in Belmar. We did a comprehensive 13 redevelopment plan in Belmar, similar in many ways 14 to what we are trying to achieve here. So we have 15 worked together, and having him as part of the team 16 and us working together, I think we really have a 17 great opportunity for success. 18 So we are very excited to kind of keep 19 moving on that. 20 And just, I mean, I appreciated a 21 couple of the comments about just not just the sort 22 the single parking lot, but the multiple parking 23 lots. 24 We will be addressing parking as 25 relates to every redevelopment in town. 27 1 Whether the Parking Authority is 2 driving it or not, we hope that they are a big part 3 of every one of those, but every redevelopment site, 4 and those include really many of the potential sites 5 we talked about at previous meetings, are parking 6 lots right now, public parking lots. Those are all 7 potential future redevelopment sites. And every 8 single one of them parking will be integral to the 9 planning and logistics and implementation of those 10 projects. 11 And we have talked about the fact that 12 you have a loop in town. At the first meeting we 13 talked about that. And the idea is certainly to 14 have parking distributed around town, public parking 15 distributed around town so that we support the 16 reconnection of the whole downtown together, and the 17 kind of needs throughout the downtown. 18 We certainly know about the commuter 19 needs, we know about the retail needs, but we also 20 learned in these public presentations about the 21 connection to the green, and the connection to the 22 college, and all the activity over here near the 23 municipal complex. 24 And all these areas are integral to the 25 overall downtown development. 28 1 So you will see that parking will be a 2 continual kind of discussion point. 3 Just on the public outreach process 4 itself, this, as I said, is the third meeting. 5 I think the first meeting someone said 6 there was only -- I don't know how many people 7 there -- I think there were about 150 people here at 8 the first meeting. Every single seat in here was 9 full, and it was standing-room only. So I think 10 that is a pretty good representation of the larger 11 public. 12 And what is meaningful, also, is you 13 are seeing that it is not just words. It is 14 actually finding its way into actual implementation 15 plans, with things that you chose. I mean, those 16 green dots, we have analyzed those, studied those, 17 and understood how those relate to what we are 18 trying to do in redevelopment. 19 So I think we are very excited by the 20 fact that the public outreach is a very real thing. 21 It is meaningful, and we are showing that in a very 22 tangible way, and we are going to continue to do 23 that. 24 Let me just jump into this. 25 As I said, a little review and recap, 29 1 and then what we are talking about today, the next 2 public outreach meeting is starting the downtown. 3 We talked about sort of more planning 4 aspects of things. In the first meeting, we talked 5 about the loop, and the location of parking, and 6 where the crossings are. 7 The last meeting we did start to get 8 into architectural and streetscape design issues, 9 but they were a little bit more general. 10 Today we are going to get a little more 11 specific, and I will talk to you a little bit more 12 about that, I will explain it to you. 13 Before I do that, I am going to tell 14 you the results the last survey. 15 The last -- the previous meeting. 16 The previous meeting we did, it was in 17 the library. There was a pretty good attendance 18 there. 19 We did a short intro, and then we all 20 kind of broke out into the tables, and everyone got 21 a chance to participate, and actually fill out a 22 survey, and pick some images that they liked, and it 23 came together quite well. 24 These are the things that we covered in 25 the last meeting. 30 1 Building form. 2 Streetscapes and signage. Or 3 storefront and signage. I'm sorry. 4 Streetscapes and urban design, and 5 green building. 6 I am not going to go through every one 7 of these, but these are actually the results of your 8 input, of the surveys that you did. 9 I think we got -- I don't know, James, 10 we got 50, 60 surveys, actually fully filled out 11 surveys? Something in that range. 12 So a pretty good number. I think 13 enough to kind of look at these things in a somewhat 14 conclusive way. 15 But just to point out, building form, 16 the things we were talking about there are the need 17 for design guidelines, and your input into that. 18 Should there be a variety of heights, set-backs, 19 building breaks. 20 You can see the yellow are the things 21 that are very high percentages, and things where you 22 all gave input and said these are things that are 23 very important to us. 24 We agree with making these an important 25 aspect of the considerations of the vision plan and 31 1 the redevelopment plan that come forward. 2 The second one was storefront and 3 signage. 4 Again, design guidelines was very much 5 -- almost everybody said we need those, and I think 6 that's really key, because you'll see today more so 7 how we sort of develop those design guidelines. It 8 really comes from a feedback loop between you and 9 us. 10 The existing storefronts are good. 11 Only 12 percent agree on that, so I guess we have 12 some work to do. 13 And a variety of sign types is 14 important. 15 These are all, you know, very key 16 things to kind of having sort of what makes up a 17 great downtown, pedestrian life, activity on the 18 streets. The things that really we all look to for 19 successful towns. 20 Streetscape and urban design, I mean, 21 again, you can see a very high percentages across 22 the board actually. So obviously what that says is 23 that we believe in streetscapes being something that 24 is very important. 25 It actually is what most of us 32 1 experience on a day to day. You see the streetscape 2 environment, and then you see the storefronts at 3 that level, and the buildings above that we 4 certainly see. But, at the end of the day, we all 5 focus on streetscapes. So design guidelines, again, 6 fairly high. Decorative pavements, comfortable and 7 safe. 8 As is, a very low percentage on that. 9 So there was some talk about an event 10 street, maybe a street that closes down on nights 11 and weekends and special event days. That was 12 something that was talked about sort of alternative 13 to almost a town square. 14 Outdoor cafes. So a very high 15 percentage. Public art. 16 These are things that we will take into 17 consideration in finalizing the plan. 18 Another thing that we talked about was 19 green buildings, and this is something that has now 20 become a part of really the Main Street media now. 21 It is great to see that we are 22 understanding the connection between buildings, 23 global warming, and all these things. 24 And understanding how, if we do some 25 things right here, those will not only have a 33 1 beneficial impact to our kind of day-to-day lives, 2 but air quality and water quality, and also have a 3 larger impact of Bloomfield playing its part in the 4 county, and the country for that matter. 5 We actually have, as a part of our team 6 here today, as part of Newwork's team, Catlin Moore, 7 who is our green building expert. She is a lead 8 certified expert. 9 She will actually be handling one of 10 our workshops today. 11 So if you have additional questions on 12 that, I am asking all our folks to stand, so that 13 you know who they are. 14 Okay. So that is a summary of the last 15 meeting. 16 I think --did we have all the stuff 17 posted to the web yet? 18 Yeah. This is posted on the web. So, 19 again, if you guys haven't seen this in more detail, 20 or you want to look at it in detail, it is on the 21 website for you all to review. 22 So today we are actually getting into 23 what we call a design charrette. 24 It is kind of a charrette like, if you 25 will. 34 1 Sometimes when you do a design 2 charrette, which is where it is more of a workshop 3 where we actually get the trace paper out, and we 4 start to put ideas on the table. Usually these 5 happen, we try to get a lot of architects -- I know 6 there are some architects in the room, and we are 7 hoping that you all will be active participants 8 today, because we have our representatives, but we 9 want you all to get the pens out and actually put 10 down on paper some of your thoughts. We will help 11 to facilitate that. 12 Sometimes these happen over an entire 13 Saturday, or even an entire weekend. 14 We are, obviously, on the fast track 15 here in getting a building built within two years, 16 not five years, and so we are trying to keep things 17 moving while making sure that we get proper and 18 comprehensive public outreach. 19 So we are going to do one part of that 20 today, and then there will be a subsequent meeting. 21 The three things that we are going to 22 address today are more building oriented, and then 23 on a subsequent charrette we will do more 24 streetscape oriented. 25 So there are actually three sections to 35 1 today. 2 There's the rehabilitation in-fill. 3 Obviously, we have a great kind of historic base of 4 buildings here in town, and rehab and in-fill will 5 be critical to the success of this town, which 6 creates the character that we often tie back in 7 history today. So rehabilitation in-fill wasn't so 8 emphasized in the old redevelopment plan, something 9 that is going to be a key emphasis. Every single 10 property in the downtown area will be kind of 11 allowed to be considered for being key to this 12 development. 13 Obviously, there is some bigger 14 redevelopment sites, some of which we talked about, 15 and we are going to address how you deal with the 16 larger buildings fitting into this historical 17 context, more through the third part which is 18 architectural form and roof scape. 19 And then the third one we are going to 20 talk about historical -- architectural style. 21 You have a range of architectural 22 styles that exist here today. Obviously, we are 23 going to try to fit buildings to some degree into 24 the context, and we are going to talk to you about 25 how style affects that. 36 1 So actually let me introduce my team, 2 and who is going to be the facilitators of this. 3 And then what we are going to do is we are going to 4 ask you all to -- hopefully all of you will stick 5 around. It's not the perfect kind of setup, but we 6 are actually set up downstairs in the hallway. 7 There are three tables. So there will actually be 8 three groups, and each group will have about a half 9 an hour, or maybe 20 minutes to half an hour per 10 table, it maybe run over a little bit, but we are 11 going to keep it moving. So you will each get a 12 chance to comment or have ideas, and talk to the 13 architects about each of these areas. 14 And, initially, I am going to kind of 15 break you up and ask you to go to a particular table 16 and find your facilitator. 17 And, as I said, we are looking for 18 active participation as we have in the past two 19 meetings. 20 We are also looking to keep it light 21 and have a little fun with this. The idea is to 22 really enjoy this. This doesn't have to be the pain 23 that's its been historically. This should be a good 24 thing. 25 So we are asking you to have a good 37 1 time with this a little bit. 2 And then, of course, we are going to 3 take the results of this, and we are going to 4 document them as we have the previous ones, and they 5 will have an impact on as we move forward towards 6 implementation. 7 Just so you know, what we will be doing 8 with all this information is that we are hearing 9 snippets of a kind of comprehensive vision plan for 10 the overall downtown area. We have shown you kind 11 of pieces of that. 12 We are kind of slowly developing that. 13 But it is really your input in these processes that 14 allow us to finalize a vision plan for the entire 15 downtown. 16 That vision plan will be accompanied by 17 a kind of implementation plan, and even though right 18 now we are implementing, there are a lot of things 19 happening to try to move things ahead. Not all of 20 which you are seeing, but you will see as things 21 unfold. 22 So we are in implementation; but, at 23 the same time, we have to really kind of work 24 simultaneously finalizing the vision so that all of 25 us say, okay, we buy into that, we like it. It may 38 1 not be perfect for everybody, but it was built out 2 of a consensus process, and then having to clear 3 steps towards implementation so we can start to see 4 some results here in town. 5 So I will ask the Newwork team, if you 6 could all stand up, and I will just introduce you, 7 and I will point out who your facilitators are. 8 Okay. So we have I guess about half 9 dozen of us here. 10 Christopher Kruhan (phonetic) is over 11 here. Christopher is my partner in Newwork, so he 12 is -- the two of us of are principals of the firm. 13 Christopher is going to lead the 14 architectural style portion. I will let him tell 15 you his background, but Christopher is our artist 16 and true kind of design and leader for our firm. 17 So he is going to try to lead you 18 through more of the style process. 19 Jason Hiller is next to him. 20 Jason is actually going to be 21 participating in the rehabilitation section. He has 22 a lot of experience doing rehab projects, and he is 23 actually going to work with Catlin, who is over 24 here. Catlin will actually lead that with Jason. 25 Travis is actually going to assist me. 39 1 I am going to be leading the architectural form and 2 roof-scape section. 3 Travis worked with me a lot in Belmar. 4 We had to deal very much with these similar kinds of 5 issues. 6 Lan is here in the middle. He will be 7 working with Christopher. 8 And, of course, we have Dave and James, 9 who you guys have seen. They have been at all of 10 the previous meeting. They have actually been 11 facilitating all of these processes. 12 And you guys were just participating 13 (inaudible) and document everything. 14 Okay. So, as I said, we are going to 15 take this information, and we are going to try to 16 move it along today. 17 Dave, how will we divide everyone up 18 here? 19 Okay. Remember the key three people. 20 Catlin, Christopher and me, and Dave will tell you 21 who to go to. 22 MR. VOICE: (Inaudible.) 23 MR. VOICE: Okay. Afterwards, we will 24 gather back up and kind of sum up. 25 (End of tape. ) 40 1 CERTIFICATE 2 3 I, CAROL ANN SHEPARD, a Certified Court 4 Reporter of the State of New Jersey, License No. 5 30X100101900, do hereby certify that the foregoing 6 is a transcript of the taped meeting, as transcribed 7 stenographically by me, held at the time, place and 8 on the date hereinbefore set forth. 9 I DO FURTHER CERTIFY that I am neither 10 a relative, nor employee, nor attorney, nor counsel 11 of any of the parties, and that I am neither a 12 relative nor employee of such attorney or counsel, 13 and that I am not financially interested in the 14 proceedings. 15 16 17 ______________________________________ 18 Certified Court Reporter of the State of New Jersey 19 20 Dated: February 9, 2008 21 22 23 24 25