What Will you Find Here?
Every week you will find a brief summary of
1) This Week in Teaneck, with the latest available next week’s meeting access and agenda information
and
2) summary of major Teaneck events from the last week under the heading, The Week that Was
This post will be updated every week on Sunday and again on Tuesday –
THIS WEEK IN TEANECK
UPCOMING TOWN MEETINGS – THIS WEEK IN TEANECK June 19-26, 2022
Only one town meeting – the Planning Board – will be open to the public this week. However, it is a very important meeting – with a required public hearing – on yet one more Council-proposed Area in Need of Redevelopment – which requires PB agreement at the PB meeting on Thursday..
Two other important dates related to public schools vacancies this week:
1) A Community Forum on Wednesday evening 7:00 pm when the Town’s Board of Education will request district & community input on the qualities residents seek in a Superintendent by Zoom (Click Here); and
2) residents seeking to apply to be considered for interim appointment to the Board of Education (resulting from the vacancy created by member Damen Cooper’s recent resignation) must submit required information by Thursday June 23. Applicants must meet the criteria spelled out in the public notice available by Clicking Here.
Note: This website does provide updates about Town meetings as new information becomes available during the week
Shade Tree Advisory Board– Thursday , 6/23 at 7:00 pm
Public access and opportunity for input limited by the Advisory Board ordinance* (see below)
Planning Board (PB) – Thursday 6/23/2022 at 8:00 pm. Information as to zoom access & agenda are finally on the Town website. Click Here
Additionally, the Board’s attorney has posted a public notice in the Record (Click Here) and other public media. about a key agenda item for the 6/23 scheduled PB meeting. That notice calls for the PB agenda to include consideration of whether the Council’s proposed properties in the State Street area’s proposed Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) meet the criteria of being an AINR. That notice specifies that there will be a public hearing on this matter and further notices that:
During the public hearing, any interested party will have an opportunity to view the hearing in its entirety and be heard (ask questions or provide comments whether in support of or objection to the designation of the Study Area as a Non-Condemnation Redevelopment Area) by visiting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81046740218 & entering Meeting ID 810 4674 0218 Passcode 126770.
Residents planning to provide input in this public hearing can access the document claiming that this State Street area meets those redevelopment criteria that has been prepared by Planner Hughes by Clicking Here. This planner’s document would appear to mis-define as in need of redevelopment some properties which clearly do NOT meet those criteria and that represent excellent examples of fully-compliant Teaneck multi-family residences.
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*Quote from Ordinance 15-2020 on Advisory Boards adopted by Council on August 11, 2020:
“Council’s advisory Board meetings are closed to the public. The public can submit items for discussion to the Council’s advisory board chair and council liaison for review and potential for inclusion on their meeting agenda. If the item is placed on the agenda, the chair, with approval of their Council’s advisory board, may invite the member of the public to come and speak to them about the specific issue they want to have discussed”.
For This Week at the Library click here
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Teaneck’s Week that Was –June 12 to 19, 2022
The Board of Education this week posted notice of criteria it will use to evaluate eligibility of applicants applying for the short-term appointment to fill the vacancy created when recent BOE Member Damen Cooper resigned from the Board earlier in the month. Information about those applications may be found by Clicking Here
Teaneck Council: met on Tuesday 6-14 22 in a meeting devoted almost entirely to ceremonial matters: (Fire Department changes [resigning Chief’s recognition and new appointment, other promotions] and two years of Matthew Feldman awards.
Everything on the Council agenda passed. Notable was the fact that Council disputed G&W resident statements about how recent appointments now further leave the land use Boards bereft of diversity. Council’s responses actually failed to factually address the G&W residents’ documentation of how the BofA now lacks full Council-appointed membership for either women or African Americans.
Included in the Council’s Consent Agenda resolutions – but never mentioned by any Council person – was Resolution 172 AUTHORIZING THE SUBMITTAL OF A JOINT APPLICATION WITH THE BOROUGH OF LEONIA TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR LOCAL EARLY ACTION PLANNING (LEAP) GRANTS PROGRAM FUNDS. The fact that the Town is in active negotiations to develop a shared service agreement that would relocate the Town’s DPW facility to joint management at the current Leonia DPW site alongside Overpeck Creek and Park is opaquely stated in this resolution. The 2 resolutions passed this week by both Leonia and Teaneck Councils assert that Teaneck had already agreed to take the lead on this planning (an agreement that had not been previously approved [or even mentioned] by Council.)
Board of Adjustment – Thursday June 16, 2022. At this special meeting the Board unanimously approved the major Arzei Darom Congregation’s expansion along Queen Anne. This application had seen significant revisions and eventually a settlement with objecting neighbors (represented by land use counsel, Gail Price) which with several additional stipulations was accepted by the Board. . The vote represented the first time in months that this Board actually completed hearings and voted on one of its complex institutional applications.
Senior Citizen’s Advisory Board (SCAB) – Thursday June 16 at 1:30 pm. Indirect reports indicate that the non-public SCAB meeting was held in one of the “team rooms” at the Field House due to the continuing absence of functioning air conditioning at the Rodda Center.
