City Council Meeting: July 17, 2025

by David Vanadia
July 18, 2025

The Lambertville City Council met at the Phillip L. Pittore Justice Center at 7pm on Thursday, July 17, 2025.

Please note: This is not official documentation. All efforts to ensure accuracy are taken. Some of what was said might be summarized for readability. Important meetings like this one get more attention with extended transcription. See the Lambertville municipal website for official records or watch the video here.

The Mayor made some general announcements. The Justice center was painted. Landlords who were late in registering paid $2,300 in fines. Parking revenue last month was $50,000. The council accepted the administrative reports, and then the Mayor announced that they were going to do things a little bit differently, and he proposed that that they would work through the items in the agenda first, and then discuss the judge’s order.

Public Comments

They Mayor asked people to keep public comments to a maximum of 3 minutes.

🗣️Mike R. said he was surprised that the Mayor went into direct talks to sell the homestead market. He felt that the Council has a fiduciary duty to sell the property to the highest qualified bidder.

The Mayor said he’d discuss it when they talked about that ordinance.

🗣️Karen A. thanked Jeff Tittel and Councilwoman Kominsky for helping people on the hill. She then directed a question at the Mayor.

“What do you envision for the future for Lambertville and why did you run for mayor?” she asked.

Mayor Nowick said he was happy to answer, but reminded folks that comments are not to be directed to any one person, because the Council works as a team.

“I ran for Mayor because I thought I could do a good job,” he said, “and I have been working full-time as the Mayor, and I show up everyday at 8 o’clock in City Hall, and I work until 4 or 5, and I also work on weekends. There’s a lot to be done over the course of the day...”

Mayor Nowick continued, saying he and his husband raised three boys in town, and he explained that being Mayor was a way for him to express his gratitude for the community in which he lives.

“As far as the community,” Karen replied, “it seems like you don’t listen to what we have to say. You know, it’s kind of like your way or that’s it. I mean maybe I’m wrong.”

“I don’t want to get into a back and forth here,” the Mayor responded, “I’d be happy to set up a meeting and have a conversation with you.”

“Well, I just want it on record, because a lot of stuff is being done and it’s not on record, so I just wanted to know your opinion of what your thoughts were for the future of Lambertville,” Karen clarified.

The Mayor said he couldn’t discuss all of his thoughts for the future of Lambertville right then, because they were not all on his mind. He reiterated that he was more than happy to have a conversation.

🗣️Jeff T. objected to the change in how the Council was addressing the agenda. He said it’s, “more manipulation to silence and confuse and keep the public from being heard.”

He said that Lambertville was one of the only towns he’s ever dealt with that limited speech to three minutes. He argued that the limitations were stifling dissent, and he objected to the government having closed-door meetings, especially with developers.

“This week, we saw horrific floods in New Jersey. Last week we saw hundreds of people die, because of flooding. The reason that flooding happens is because you cut down the mountains, you cut down forests, you pave over open space and you can’t control the water,” Jeff said, clearly upset. “What I’m saying is, not only don’t you listen to the people, you’re setting us up for a tragedy.”

The room applauded.

🗣️Susanne D. tried to speak directly to the Mayor, but the Mayor objected to her addressing any one person on the Council. Susanne continued anyhow saying that she believes Mayor Nowick had the town’s best interest at heart when he began as mayor, because he used to do walkabouts, “which were wonderful.” She said the Mayor was very responsive, but that things have gotten darker.

“How are these redevelopments going to enhance and enrich our little town that we love so much?” she asked, “Those are my thoughts, not directed to you.”

🗣️Judy G. was sorry about the decision to change the way the Council was doing the public comments. She felt that the last minute announcement was not a good way to communicate changes in the public agenda.

She said she looked up the role of mayor, and was concerned, because she has seen the council take positions contrary to the Mayor, and she’s seen the outcome be something that was not supported by the Council.

“We live in a world where people are doing things that do not fall within their duties and powers at high levels of government, which has caused everybody concern,” Judy said. “I did not expect to have that concern in this little town.”

🗣️Sean E. said it doesn’t seem like council is working as a team. He felt that there’s “a routing around democracy,” and he was concerned there was an undemocratic resolution, as if the Council is being thwarted by one person.

🗣️John H. spoke about Cavallo Park. He mentioned how in the 1970s, when the city converted the park, he and Jim Hamilton gave a presentation about what Cavallo park should look like. John said he did all the paperwork himself.

“When I saw $150,000 dollars minimus [sic] for Benzopyrene,” he exclaimed, “You’ve got to be kidding me, and I’m using light language here.”

It appeared John was referring to a recent cost estimate for remediation.

“Uh, that’s real beef. The worst being chicken fat. Beef not so bad,” he said, “so every property here—in Lambertville, not in the world—has got Benzopyrenes [sic] on it. And $150,000 dollars to clean it up?!”

John was angry, “I hope you got paperwork. Folks. From the Green Acres. Because Green Acres knows nothing about it. At all! And I’ve got the paperwork that says they don’t.”

He continued, “if this $150,000 is spent to clean up chicken fat and beef, then I think we’ll have to take it to the next level.”

John explained how, every day of his life, he looks up at the hill by his home, and it’s slowly losing its trees. He said illegal blasting in the middle of the night might be contributing to the contents of buried tanks getting into our aquifers.

“So we have a very serious problem here,” he said, “Benzopyrene better go away. We do not want to get involved with the folks in Newark. You know who they work for before, and they probably still do now.”

He then talked about trees, how the town cannot tolerate a heavy rain fall, and he blamed indifference for causing that problem.

“And if we’re the ones involved in getting injured, I will take it to the highest level,” he declared, “you’re forcing us to go into the enemy camp.”

The Mayor said that he, the attorney, and the LSRPs have been in regular contact with Green Acres.

“Who?! Give me a name. Attorney, give me a name,” John demanded.

The Mayor and the city attorney told John the name of their contact.

“I’d be more than happy to send you a long line of emails that show that we’ve had regular communication with them,” the Mayor replied.

John said, “I have a person who is a compliance officer who has no clue what you’re talking about. That could be the issue here. There’s nothing wrong with Cavallo Park. We don’t have to spend $150,000 dollars to clean up chicken fat.”

“We have a well established record of what’s happening at Cavallo Park,” the Mayor countered.

“So do I. I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” John retorted. “You gotta be able to talk to justice blindly.”

John thanked everyone for their attention, and returned to his seat.

Resolutions

119-2025 & 127-2025 was for the redemption of a tax lien. The motion carried.

128-2025 Resolution to update the bid threshold. The motion was adopted.

129-2025 certified the 2024 audit. There were no recommendations this year, it was a perfectly clean audit. They accepted the motion and it carried.

They paid the bills. The motion carried.

First Reading Ordinances

18-2025 An accessible parking space on Clinton street ordinance was accepted.

Amendments to 19-2025 were special regulations for major motion pictures, which brought Lambertville’s movie code in line with the state of NJ. It carried.

Second Reading Ordinances

15-2025 was for an accessible parking spot on York Street. There were no public comments and the ordinance was adopted.

16-2025 is about the Holcombe Farm redevelopment plan. It was found to be consistent with the master plan, permits the sale of land to Fisherman’s Mark, and makes space for six Habitat for Humanity affordable housing units.

Public Comments

🗣️Paul S. felt strongly that any activity related to the sale of the Closson property should be put on hold until they figure out the high school site.

He said that selling the property one time will bring in money, but not ongoing future revenue. “And there’s a good chance we’re gonna need it,” he added.

He said it’s the only property that the city has that it owns right now where it controls the future of what goes on there. He suggested that the entire property might have to be developed with affordable housing, because Fisherman’s Mark has plenty of money according to their own financial reports.

Paul also suggested that Fisherman’s Mark could think more creatively, and perhaps put affordable housing units on the second floor of their building. Then he pointed out that Fisherman’s Mark is in violation with zoning, because a food pantry was not one of the permissible uses for that location.

🗣️Peter H. was curious and concerned about the process that brought the city to designating the property for redevelopment. He thought it was questionable and completely wrong. He said the criteria was not accurate, and pointed out that the minutes show the Mayor stated the reason for doing it was to enable the city to use the property was for stormwater management, which he found curious. He said there is no mention in the plan of any extremely consequential project going on at that property.

”Maybe I’m the only one who likes to look at stars,” Peter said, “or have the only view in town looking over the city. That was the only place that you can do it.”

He said the hill was going to be obliterated and so will the sledding.

“I’m astounded that this is something that’s moving forward without question, especially in light of what we’re seeing with Hovnanian,” Peter concluded.

The Mayor said the city is working with a $22,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which is ongoing and has been very well vetted. He said it will add green infrastructure in the park, and sledding will not be compromised.

“That project is continuing, and it will have a beneficial impact to houses across the street, for example, and for stormwater in general,” confirmed the Mayor.

“So the project will not do what it is stating that it is going to do?” Paul asked.

“You can call me and set up a meeting,” replied the Mayor.

🗣️Mike R. said, “There’s a lot of contention going on in society right now. We abuse language in our society. Suggesting that the Closson Farm is an area in need of redevelopment is a lie. It’s an abuse of language.”

He talked about the ‘spirit of law.’ He explained how when the government buys, it should buy from the lowest qualified bidder, and when it sells, it should sell to the highest qualified bidder.

“I actually think the council members have a fiduciary duty to the tax payer to ensure that that happens. Thank you. I appreciate any thoughts and comments.”

Mayor Nowick said the Council had talked about it a number of times before in public meetings. He said the property had been appraised in multiple different ways so they could fully understand its value, and Fisherman’s Mark has agreed to pay above the valued price.

Councilwoman Lambert said the comments have given her pause to reflect. She remembered specifically advocating for putting the bid out to the highest bidder, and she wanted to go on record saying she supported that stance.

“It doesn’t matter if we sell the property to a benevolent organization at a discounted price or a highly qualified bidder at a slightly higher price. We would still have the opportunity to pay down the debt with that money, so I just want to go on record as saying I do support the reservations that are being put forward tonight,” she said.

The Mayor said that she could express it as she wanted in the vote.

🗣️Jeff T. said the reason they make an area of redevelopment is to get around bidding and zoning, “so just so you understand that this was done so that they do a private sale versus doing a public bid, and I’m not necessarily against the private. I just want to make sure people understand.”

He said nobody knows what the infrastructure improvements will cost.

“This is not going to be a money maker. This is going to be a money loser,” Jeff said. “That site is supposed to get five units of affordable housing in round three, the former mayor took it off and moved it to the police station, and then they wanted to put the police station in a flood zone. But those five units that stood out there is one of the major reasons we lost the lawsuit to K. Hovnanian, because we could not get certified because we had no place for those five units. Had we put them back on Closson Farm after we bought the property, we would have had a different outcome. This has been a tragedy, a major mistake, or in the army we called it another word that starts with ‘cluster.’ I’ll leave it at that.”

🗣️Dave B. said the sale of the market should go to public auction. He felt that the city would do better that way. He said, “With the court case, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s not gonna be good. To tie up any of our properties that now belongs to us—us the taxpayers—I think it would be a dereliction of duty, to prepare for whatever is coming.”

🗣️John H. said he presented a presentation as a professional at the past planning board meeting. (Editor’s note: John was not sworn in as an expert witness at that planning board meeting. The board repeatedly tried to swear him in, but John spoke over them and said he was just reading facts and wasn’t giving any opinions.) “I’m a historic preservation specialist,” John said. He mentioned that he read through his qualifications at the planning meeting, but he forgot to mention that he and his wife got a call from then President Reagan, who thanked them for work they did on a project. Reagan added, “but more importantly, I want to thank you for what you did for America,” John said. “And that’s what I’m gonna do right now.”

“The Holcombe Farm is on the state and national register of historic places. As soon as it’s purchased by a municipality,” John slammed his hand on the podium, “it comes under the control of the historic place council.”

He said demolition of a contributing structure, taking property from a historic resource, or alternation of listed properties is illegal.

“This. Is. So. Illegal!” John exclaimed, clearly upset. “Encroachments are reviewed in a meeting with the historic sites council.”

He continued, “A blighted property is a property that is exactly that: ugly, neglected, run down, conditions of urban decay... Holcombe Farm is trying to be developed under 40a12. That is not in any way something that occurs... So this property here, in order to be developed, it’s got to go before the Historic Sites Council. It’s got to be an open public meeting. And that’s the law of the land.”

He asked if we have problems in New Jersey with affordable housing, and said 15-20% of homes in New Jersey are valued at one million or more, “so it’s economically driven and not anything else at all.”

He reiterated that anything that happens must be approved by the Historic Sites Council in an open, public meeting. He said he told the planning board that a man in town with 3.5 acres went to the former mayor to be considered for a deal for affordable housing on their property. They wanted to do trailers or tiny houses on land that didn’t get flooded during Ida, but the ideas was rejected.

“I’m very concerned about living in what I call an alcoholic family, where I’m afraid to tell the truth so I don’t bring us out in the open with some of the stuff that’s going on around here. But sooner or later, and hopefully later, we are going to be having people looking at Fisherman”s Mark as a ICE target, if I might say so, and you can’t restrict people from speaking here. It’s called the constitution, and it amps up when you get to sections 241, 242. Your attorney here will tell you that. It gets pretty nasty.”

🗣️Paul S. said, “There have been appraisals on that? The only thing that I know of in public meeting were the appraisals that were done for Green Acres and they did not include an appraisal of the exclusion zone. If there is an appraisal of the exclusion zone could you please send it to me. Thank you.”

🗣️Judy G. wanted to thank the people who have knowledge and experience and information they were able to share in this public hearing. She asked the Council, “Please, take this seriously and don’t feel like you have to do whatever it is you’re being asked to do tonight. There’s obviously more going on here. Maybe at the end of the day you find out that there’s no need to do anything differently than what was thought would be out there, but there’s been really important information shared with the whole room, not just with the council. That means everybody here knows the stuff that is at issue and in question. Members of council have in the past stood for this sort of thing and said ‘okay, we’re gonna hold on, we’re gonna do whatever we’re gonna do’ so I know, having watched this council since its election in various years, this is a group that’s willing to look and take careful attention. So just please, I didn’t give you any good information, but I heard good information and I’m asking you to please take the time and not feel like you can check off something by going at it tonight when there’s clearly more to it now than is 100% clear. Thank you.”

🗣️Sean E., thought Paul had a good point. He asked, “If there are appraisals, assuming it’s taxpayer money, is it possible to make that public?”

The Mayor said there were two or three appraisals and there were a lot of proposed ideas about what to do at the site. Then he deferred to Bill, the city attorney. Bill confirmed that there were three appraisals and said his opinion was that making the numbers public would compromise the bid.

“So it was made with taxpayer money, but the public can’t actually see that?” Sean asked.

The Mayor replied in the affirmative, and comments whispered across the room.

🗣️Camille L. came up to speak, and the Mayor asked if she was going to comment on the [Closson] redevelopment plan.

“The one on the hill? Is that the one we’re doing?” Camille asked.

The Mayor explained that they were going to get to that. Camille apologized and said she’d come back up.

The Mayor asked, “Is there anybody online who wishes to speak to this?”

🗣️John H., who already gave public testimony, stood up to speak again.

The Mayor said, “No, John. I’m sorry, we’re gonna—”

Council President Lambert cut the Mayor off.

“Mayor, people have the right to speak. They shouldn’t be shut down and they shouldn’t be told they’ve spoken too much. I’m sorry,” she said.

The room applauded.

John said, “If I might say so. Compliance. Does the local government certify what you folks passed? They request the authorization of the commission of environmental protection prior to encroaching upon a resource listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, and you put your John Hancock on it. You had agreed to it, and now you’re turning your back on it. It all don’t work that way.”

Nobody online wanted to speak, so Council closed public comments.

Councilman Stegman said, “Given the information that we received tonight, which is actually maybe the first time I’ve heard about it, about additional approvals we need to potentially sell parts of the Closson property. I would be hesitant to take action before we did a little bit more due diligence. I could be wrong, but I have questions whether the Holcombe Farm is actually singled out. Because not many properties are singled out for protection.”

John H. said “It is.”

“But be that as it may,” Stegman continued, “I would rather we wait until we get official word whether what we’re doing with the property...”

The Mayor said, “We have talked about this in at least one public meeting. Anything that we do on that property is going to have to go before a state historical preservation office and the Historic Sites Council. We have talked about this in public meetings. There’s not a single thing that we can do up there—the reason why the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant is taking so long is because we needed to do an archeological survey and that took a very long time. They found a thousand objects, which are in City Hall. If anyone is interested in seeing them, they may. And then they required that we do a second survey of a separate area of the park. There’s not a single thing that we can do up there without talking to the D&R Canal Commission, without going to Historic Sites, and SHPO.”

“Am I correct Michael?” the Mayor asked.

“Yes” Michael responded.

“Did I miss anything?” the Mayor asked.

“No” Michael confirmed.

“Okay. So this has been talked about in public meetings before. I don’t want there to be confusion about it. Anything we do there is a multi-layered process, and I have found that out better than anybody, with Green Acres. Anything we do up there, it’s taking—we’ve owned the property like four years and everything requires a lot of bureaucratic applications. I could talk about this for half an hour. So I just want to make sure that everybody is clear. It is true. John is correct and nobody was disputing that at any point. The Historic Sites Council will need to be seen. SHPO will need to be contacted. Applications will need to be sought and approved by the state before we can do the Habitat houses, before we can do potential work on the site that’s related to Green Acres.”

“And that will be an open public meeting?” a person asked.

“Those meetings are as public as the state makes them. This Historic Sites Commission I think is open.”

Bill said he knows SHPO is open.

“Well we would like these to be open, because that is a very historic site,” the person said. “and for us to carve it up in a way that you’re talking about would not be appropriate for it.”

“We already closed public comment,” the Mayor informed.

“Sorry. I’ll take it later, but you know fully well what that site is,” the person replied.

The Mayor said, “We all do. I have a deed from 1705 in my office. I look at it every single day. I’m very keenly aware of the historic significance of that site.”

The Mayor asked if there were other questions from the council.

Councilwoman Lambert said, “I just want to second Councilman Stegman’s comments about getting some good information for tonight. It does give me pause that we should maybe take further discussion on how to approach this. Maybe we missed some opportunities and that would be part of the discussion and the public would be privy to that discussion and that would be a good thing. But really, what are our options and what are the things we can accomplish? What’s the reason we’re not moving forward with this? That’s number one. What else could we possibly do? I’d like to maybe carry this forward, and see if there’s an opportunity to do a little bit of extra bidding.”

The Mayor said “I strongly feel a different point of view from the Council President. I think that the expectation, the last couple of years worth of work and conversations in the public about this have taken place, and we have worked in the public forum to discuss this many times. We have talked about debt, we have talked about the mission of Fisherman’s Mark and what an important organization it is to the character and the very support of our residents. So I would be opposed to moving this to a different date. We’ve already done so much work here and it feels as though we would be doing a last minute complete change of heart.”

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “I think given the situation we are probably wise to carry it, because we don’t want to go back and start all over again. Since we already know how some of the Council members feel... there needs to be some further discussion, particularly the failsafe in a redevelopment plan of ‘Well what if it doesn’t sell in the way that they said? What if we wanted to convert the building into affordable housing and we needed to?’ Is there anything else we need to put in the redevelopment plan to give some surety to that? Maybe it does go ahead and go with Fisherman’s Mark, but the food for thought here is some of these desires that failsafe, because what the sale—I’m privy to the sale negotiations, but it hasn’t happened yet so we’re adopting a plan. We don’t really have a buyer, we’re gonna have a plan with a plan that may not be the use, so carrying it may be, you know, the wisest move to be able to move ahead with a product that everyone can agree on. There is no point in having a showdown over it. I would rather work it out to compromise, you know.”

Councilman Lide said, “I didn’t think we were going to be having as much of a discussion on this, honestly. I thought we were going to be talking about the K. Hov. So I do agree with Councilwoman Kominsky about the wise thing about it being to carry it at this time, but I do want to say I do support selling to Fisherman’s Mark, and I think that there was an agreement that this property would not be sold unless it was sold over the appraisal value.”

He continued, “So obviously when that vote happens I want people to understand that yes, we’re gonna honor that. That was not honored when the property was bought. I wasn’t on Council when the property was bought—I didn’t support it—but I am now and my job is to do what’s best for the city of Lambertville. Also, for the last couple of years we’ve had people coming in here saying ‘why isn’t this property sold?’ so now we’re pulling back and let me tell you there were a lotta lotta comments and a lot of the people who made those comments are the same ones now saying ‘let’s slow it down.‘

“You know, look, more information changes everything, but I do support the project. I certainly don’t want to start all over again. I think the wisest thing is to make sure the city attorney can look at this information and carriage it and hopefully be able to proceed very shortly. I do have a question though. Part of this resolution is for our affordable housing with that project. Is that gonna cause problems if we don’t move forward?”

The Mayor asked council to address that question and pointed out that the city’s third round of compliance is tied into a Habitat for Humanity MOU.

He said, “If this is not approved what that says is that we do not have the mechanism to move forward with Habitat for Humanity. It’s going to put us, I think—and I want Kelly to give her expert legal opinion—put us in legal jeopardy that we do not need.”

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “That is great information. That is why we have this sputtering of stuff, so carry on.”

Kelly said the city has been working with Habitat for Humanity to develop an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). She said the city had represented that to the court several times including in recent litigation. Because they made a swap from the police site, they negotiated this parcel. She said it’s been put to court, and to Fair Share.

“Not moving is not moving, and it’s on an agenda so it’s not very difficult for folks to see it wasn’t approved at this time at a public hearing,” Kelly said.

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “In order to keep our good faith with the court since we don’t have immunity, that the recommendation, that we have talked about before, is that we need to move forward with this as part of the package to try and move to get our immunity back.”

Councilman Lide said, “So we’re not selling anything. We’re just—”

Councilwoman Kominsky continued, “We’re just adopting the redevelopment plan, which includes the six units that is part of our round three, which now doesn’t have immunity, but we are working towards getting our immunity back. The judge removed our immunity and it’s a very precarious place with the city. This is one of the steps that we need to take towards getting our immunity back.”

Kelly said she would agree with that characterization.

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “That’s an aspect of the plan that we weren’t really talking about, because we were talking about the ability to put, uh, if they didn’t buy the farm market, we would have that space to put another affordable housing unit. So I guess the bottom line is that we need to adopt this with a different bit of a wrinkle to protect us, because we have to keep those six units moving.”

She said if there is an issue and they need, they could go back and amend the plan if we need to build affordable housing on the property.

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “We have to protect our immunity but we also have to commit to looking at it down the road if we want more affordable housing there or whatever. But tonight if we can do that it really is to the betterment of the city that we protect ourselves from this immunity. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves but I will say that you don’t want to have no immunity and then have anybody be able to come in and build whatever they want on any parcel here whether or not it’s redevelopment or on vacant land in the name of affordable housing. You lose control of your zoning that way, and if this is the price that we’re paying for doing that in my rethinking of even carrying it, you know let’s move forward tonight. We’ll do something later on and I swear to god I’ll never make anything a redevelopment plan again.”

People laughed.

Councilman Lide said, “I think the six units is why I should be moving forward with this, and we’ve heard the concerns that we’re not going to address those concerns, but as Councilwoman Kominsky said, the immunity is critical.”

“We don’t have immunity!” someone called out.

“Exactly. And that’s the problem,” Councilman Lide replied.

A bunch of people began to talk all at once, and the Mayor said, “Please, one person speak at a time.”

Councilwoman Lambert said, “Councilwoman, and the Councilman, I really appreciate your dialogue and Kelly, thank you as well. That helped clarify for me about immunity. Okay, yeah, we don’t have immunity, but this would make us have even less immunity. That’s what I’m hearing. Like, there’s a lot of different things and steps we need to do to move forward. This would be one of them, even though we didn’t anticipate having this type of discussion—I certainly didn’t, but I’m glad we have. We could theoretically comply with the judge’s order with regard to the high school site, but not doing this, eh, we’re still out of compliance. We don’t like it, but it’s the way it is.”

Councilman Stegman said, “Right before we bought the property, Ben and I—and we weren’t in office yet—Ben and I met with Julia and we talked about using part of the property for Fair Share housing. And at the time, the constraints were so hard with Fair Share that building a small property did not qualify for any points or any credit.

“We talked about the Closson Farm, the farm market, many times at many meetings. We even put a notice out if there was interest if anybody wanted to purchase it, and it was pretty well circulated. And we got two responses. One was for a restaurant,” he said.

The other interested party was Fisherman’s Mark. Councilman Stegman did not say how much Fisherman’s Mark had paid, or what the appraisal was, but he did confirm that they are paying more than the appraised value. He said that information will come out when they have a contract.

“I was in favor of Fisherman’s Mark being willing to pay to purchase it..” he said, “I did not want an outside entity that was going to set up a strip mall there. I didn’t want something that didn’t serve the community on land that was city owned.”

He explained that one of the ways they considered doing it was to have Fisherman’s Mark purchase the property.

“That’s why the redevelopment plan is very specific to what happens on the property and also where the log home is,” he explained.

“I have to remind people that before Ben and I got on council, that property was going to be the police department and it wasn’t until I had a shouting match with the former mayor that I was not going to approve the purchase if it was going to be developed for a municipal purpose. That’s why I voted to purchase it, and that’s why we can now use it. That’s the reason Ben and I ran, to make sure that property is viable. If the proposal goes forward and we accept the redevelopment plan we have sewn up the use of that property where the farm market is until some other council in some other future decides to do something else and change the use of it. So this is just another step in moving forward with a use that I support on where the farm market. Everybody here knows the good work that Fisherman’s Mark does. And now we’re getting Fair Share that takes us back into compliance with the third round of Fair Share agreement. So that’s what it does. I will say this: before a shovel goes into the ground on any of these projects, it’s gonna be reviewed by the necessary entities to approve it. So there’s a failsafe in here. That’s why I’m going to support this.”

“In addition to that, I know how fragile our relationship is with Fair Share. and if we want to shoot ourselves in the foot,” Councilman Stegman said, “and put the city into a worse position it is not a reason to not approve the redevelopment plan as it is now. John, I’m glad you brought it up, all those loops we have to go through, and we still have to go through those loops. The redevelopment plan does not affect it, because it’s just a plan now.”

The Mayor made a motion to take a vote on 16-2025.

They adopted the plan and it carried with Kominsky, Lambert, Lide, Stegman, and Nowick voting yes.

17-2025 Renewing the cable company’s contract with the city.

🗣️Sean E. requested that the ordinance include a narrative from the Lambertville Broadband Cable and Telephone Services Advisory Committee that outlines the committee’s recommendations.

“The city did not change the contract or ask for anything other than what we’re getting. I think that should be shared with the public,” Sean said.

Cindy said the narrative is attached online. There was no further public testimony, so the Council closed public comments and adopted the ordinance.

Lambertville After Hours

The Mayor reported that people said the Lambertville After Hours event was a lot of fun, went really well, and cleared out right at 9pm so folks could go to the fireworks.

Councilman Stegman was there. He originally had concerns with the day and which street they wanted to close, but he had great conversations with people and they didn’t close North Union Street so he felt it was a success. He said the event really focused the businesses on Church Street, and, having once had a business on Church Street himself, he felt it was great to focus on the fascinating businesses there. He said the juggler was great, and worked with kids. They chalked the streets. He said he’s ready for the next one.

Councilman Lide thought they did a good job working with the area businesses and notification.

Councilwoman Kominsky said there was a lot of creativity and it was wonderful.

Announcements

The Mayor received a letter saying the D&R Canal will be dredged at some point, but he does’t know when just yet.

The Mayor announced the second annual Teddy Bear Picnic, which is sponsored by the Clerk’s Office and was scheduled for August 2, 2025.

K. Hovnanian Lawsuit Court Order

The Mayor read a statement about the court order, and then let Kelly speak about the process, to give information to the public. Then Council opened for public comments. Then the council spoke. The Mayor asked everyone to be mindful and let one person speak at a time to let everyone could say what they needed to say.

Statement Regarding Court Order

The Mayor read, “On July 7th, the court entered an order revoking the city’s immunity from Builder’s Remedy lawsuits, and allowing interested parties to file such a lawsuit to address any or all of the city’s affordable housing obligation. This order also directed the city to amend the Lambertville High School redevelopment plan to allow for a 200 unit inclusionary residential development to be constructed at the site. Upon adoption of this redevelopment plan amendment the city would be eligible to apply for a final judgement of compliance from the court. The city reviewed the July 7th order and will follow the court’s direction. The ordinance to approve amendments to the high school redevelopment plan consistent with the court’s order will be introduced at an upcoming council meeting likely as soon as the next meeting in August.”

Kelly explained that when the city is stripped of it’s immunity that means that it is exposed to Builder’s Remedy Lawsuits, which means that the city loses control of zoning not only on the high school site, but also on every other site in the city’s plan.

The high school site was in third round plan, which expired June 2025, and the city is into the fourth round. With no immunity, it leaves the city open and exposed to developers coming in and saying they have a site they’d like to zone at a higher density than is currently zoned.

“And that’s the gist of a Builder’s Remedy Lawsuit,” Kelly said.

The decision to comply is important. The next steps is to inform the parties in the litigation that the city is seeking to comply with the court order. Compliance with the court order will put the city back in a position to seek immunity to prevent other developers from coming in and attacking our plan.

Mayor Nowick said Council will seek to introduce amendments to the ordinance at the August 21st meeting, then it will go to Planning board in early September, and then return to council on September 18th for a second reading.

Public Comments

🗣️Karen A. said I’ve been up there for over thirty plus years. In the past, I have worked with several different mayors from Lambertville and the City Council. I have worked with West Amwell Mayors and their city councils. The residents up there, and when I say we that includes everybody I just said, West Amwell and Lambertville residents, we cleaned up that hill. It was a forgotten hill. We, the residents, took over 2,000 tires off that hill. We the residents go the people involved, got Habitat up there, cleaned titles up there for abandoned homes. We the people also got that park done that was done in Lambertville and West Amwell. Back then, everybody worked together to listen to what we had to say. Worked things out. This time, I don’t understand how this happened up there. It took one person from what I’m—it took one person, and I’m not pointing fingers, but it took one person to push this development through and not give us a considered opinion about any of that stuff up there. It’s like a slap in the face with a hundred some homes up there that people live up there. We cleaned it up. We took care of that neighbor. We took care of everybody up there. And to have somebody come in and just ignore us is a slap in the face. I didn’t appreciate it and I don’t like it, and you did a hundred some homes up there. So I’m glad you got what you wanted. Be careful for what you wish for.”

🗣️Camille L. said, “I haven’t come to the last few meetings because this is kind of an emotional topic. I moved there seven years ago. My husband died. I wanted a nice quiet place. I moved up there. Since I’ve been up there, I’m in a detached unit. No matter how many times I complained about the unit next to me, overcrowded, this and that, the guy’s a slumlord, he rented it to people who burned it down. So since then, they’re building two houses behind me. I don’t know if you guys know what a scraper sounds like. It goes across the ground, and removes every piece of life, totally scrapes out a lot. No life at all. The animal, you can hear them scream. Now you might be looking at me like, ‘oh she’s such a tree hugger.’ We care about the nature and the area. We just want to sell it to a builder and make money and tax base and blah blah blah. It’s horrendous. And anybody who approves 200 units on that lot should be tied to a chair and made to listen to the scrapers. For ten years the people here are going to have to listen to the beeping of the trucks backing up. By the way, I called zoning because these builders behind me are so hideous and ill informed and such bad neighbors and I said ‘you know, by the way, are there any hours or days that builders are not allowed to build in Lambertville?’ and she said ‘nope.’ You can do whatever you want. There are no rules in Lambertville at all. I can show you the email. She has never given me one second of any kind of anything. When I call back, anything. They dug that house too deep, they dug it like 20 feet deep, it had to have a finished basement, okay. They dug up the edge of my yard, which technically belongs to the city, but they haven’t touched it ever. They dug it up. They left it a complete mess: piles of rocks, wires, I mean you name it, right. And I cleaned it up. 65 years old. I’m out there picking up the rocks, this and that. The builder would never do anything about it. And the city would never do anything about it. So the night that they go and they almost hit the gas line out there. Lambertville has no rules whatsoever about builders. You could do anything! You’re talking about ‘oh well if we don’t do this then we open ourselves up to builders doing whatever they want.’ They do it anyway. Right behind me, the other lot’s in West Amwell. There has been a twenty foot hole in the ground for weeks. Children could fall in it. Pets could fall in it. Does anybody care? No! So, my understanding is that you’re going to take away the ability for people to walk into town when you do this development that only benefits the builder. I don’t want to hear about affordable housing. It’s a joke. For ten low-income families in the poverty-trap of renting for their whole lives, you’re going to scrape an entire ecosystem out of there and sacrifice everyone on that hill. We have no curbs. We have no sidewalks. And you’re gonna send four hundred cars a day up there. You don’t care. I don’t even believe in democracy anymore. You’re not representing me, you’re representing the builder! There’s no arguing about it! Just answer me one question. I know this question’s been answered before. Why are they not considering that site, there’s an empty apartments by CVS, for affordable housing. Affordable housing—the poverty trap. The boon for builders. Is there an answer to that question?”

Mayor Nowick told her that there is a developer for the Village Apartments site and that they are in process to build the same amount of apartments that currently exist. He outlined how they will have to elevate the property, and how that triggers regulations, and it’s a slow process.

“And that does give you some affordable housing units?” Camille asked.

“Well, that would give us nine, out of 44” the Mayor replied.

Camille continued, “There are HUD homes on that hill. Why not just put 40 HUD homes on that. I know it’s privately owned. But they don’t even care if we put 40 HUD homes up there. And the last time the last I heard ‘we’re gonna put in another 139 units.‘ That’s bad enough. Now it’s back up to 200 units. It’s ridiculous! And you’re gonna send all those cars. Our houses are like this far from the road. You don’t care. You’re sacrificing the entire hill. And everybody up there is poor anyway. So you’re doing your whole, like, ‘I want to control more people in this one little box, we don’t care about the rest of those poor people.’ They’re gonna lose all the equity in their houses. You don’t care. Just the poverty trap. That makes more sense, right? There’s just no excuse for it, and you’re gonna be remembered as the Robert Moses of Lambertville. All of you. People 30 years from now ‘Oh remember them? They’re the ones that ruined Lambertville.’ Are you gonna make, like, an elevated highway down Union Street because the ‘poor people’ [she made air quotes] need to get from one end of the town to the other quicker? Separate neighborhoods. Thanks,”

Council President Lambert said, “I would just like to make a comment, Camille. I have publicly stated on multiple occasions my objection to the project and I want you to know that I did what I could to not have this happen, okay? Um, we presented a case, because we had to. We had a motion from the developer. We presented a case. It was weak. It could’ve been stronger.”

“So I heard,” Camille said.

“Recommendations.” Council President Lambert said.

“None of the environmental things were brought up,” Camille interjected.

“I’ll just say, you know what was in there and what wasn’t. So I just want to assure you that I, for one, did not support this project—once the environmental issues became clear,” said Councilwoman Lambert.

Camille asked, “I did hear a rumor that they would have to run water to the whole hill if they were gonna do this project.”

“I can’t speak to that,” Council President Lambert replied.

“Well, that figures,” Camille said.

“If there’s anyone on this council that supported this project they should speak up,” Council President Lambert said.

🗣️Abigail L. asked, “Who is council for Lambertville?”

Kelly said she is the affordable housing attorney.

“You are the affordable housing attorney. So who is representing the people of Lambertville, and more specifically Connaught Hill and their interests? Is anybody here? Anybody at all as an attorney representing Lambertville and especially the people of Connaught Hill as an attorney representing Lambertville and especially the people of Connaught Hill in the courtroom right now or do we have to obtain council ourselves?”

Councilman Lide asked, “So you’re talking about in the affordable housing case, right?”

Abigail said, “In terms of representing our interests in making sure that our land is not raped and pillaged like K. Hovnanian exactly plans to do, and as you, not you obviously [she gestured to Council President Lambert] seem to be in support of, and by the way, you should be ashamed of yourselves for laughing at such a depressing matter, because you have so many people here who are at risk of losing their livelihood. And you are laughing! Everyone is going to lose their house. You are poisoning people! K. Hovnanian is going to go bankrupt and poison us. I’ve seen it. The house behind us, they, that man has abandoned the house and nobody cares. They have a hole in the ground. It flooded and flooded and flooded. Nobody cares. Not a single one of you cares. You stand up there and you laugh. You are city employees and you are laughing. You are laughing. You are laughing. And I think it’s despicable, and I think you should be taken out of office, because you are receiving taxpayer money and you are not being transparent. If you receive a single penny from the people of Lambertville you need to be transparent otherwise step down!”

🗣️Jeff T. said, “For over a year, myself, members of the public, some members of the council, have said this was a bad site. This was the wrong development in the wrong place. It’s too big. It’s gonna cost too many environmental problems. And then we found out about PFAS. We found out that the landfill was never lined. And then we found out that there was an electronic factory that probably used PFAS and wells have tested 40 times above the standard. And yet we go forward. People asked for other locations. We didn’t do, we never did real due diligence, and I will say that because I watched those committees. We never got experts to back up problems that were laid out by the public, by council people. We have experts on the council. You have a planner and a former deputy DEP commissioner. I spent 40 years dealing with affordable housing issues and over 50 years on planning boards. I’ve never seen such a shameful case in my life, were we went out to lose. Mayor, and I’m going to point at people. I’m sorry, I have a first amendment right!”

“You’re out of order,” the Mayor said.

“I have a first amendment right to say things. You can’t say I’m out of order when I have the first amendment. And I’m going to go on to say you supported this project from the beginning. You directed the planner and the lawyers and we lost so this is on you. When we get flooded, stormwater collusion, traffic, pedestrian safety where someone gets hurt, where we have one problem after another and then we have to spend millions of dollars to build a new stormwater system, to put a light on 179, to widen streets up on the hill. We’re gonna be paying for it. Not the developer. When it comes to cleaning up that site, it’s not gonna get cleaned up. Hovnanian has a record. Go to Union near where I grew up. Hickory Heights. They built on a toxic site they got caught with. They got caught in Newark! They got caught in Jersey City! They got caught in many other places! I was involved! They violated the clean water act 540 times for 540 projects. And this is who we’re putting our future and trust on. Every time something happens, whether it’s gonna be flooding, pollution, buildings coming down the hill, because they’re gonna have to build big retaining walls and that happened up in Oakland when I warned the town about that. It’s gonna be on this body and the people who pushed it, who supported this all along, who met with Hovnanian, who made sure we lost this case. And now we can’t appeal, because it we appeal, we can’t get immunity. So we have been put in a box and unfortunately we were put there by our professionals, and by our Mayor, and this is the future of our town. And it’s online and for the people here who think this is gonna change anything it’s not. It’s the same crap that happened here will happen with Finkles if we’re not careful so we better organize. We’d better fight, and we better stand up for our town, and for our homes, and for our neighborhoods.”

People in the room applauded.

🗣️Beth O. said, “For over a year, I’ve been speaking at and attending these meetings, raising concerns about redevelopment on Connaught Hill. Tonight I want to express my deep disappointment in the K. Hovnanian lawsuit and in the leadership that brought us to this point. How did we get here? Unfortunately our mayor and the city’s legal team failed us at every critical step. Residents raised concerns, opportunities for stronger legal arguments were ignored. The city’s own planner called the site suitable, provable, and developable, and no counter evidence was ever submitted to the court. No environmental studies. No expert reports. No mention of PFAS contamination. Nothing. Let me repeat that. Despite warnings to the residents and City Council members about PFAS, steep slopes, flooding, poor storm water management, a former electronic factory, and an unremediated landfill, none of it was included in the city’s legal filings. That silence was not an oversight. It was a decision. They mayor’s intensional inaction, silence, and delay are just frustrating. They’re negligent. They are a betrayal of the people he was elected to serve. One man should not determine the future of our town. This is not what democracy looks like, and yet here we are. They mayor has helped pave the way for a 200 unit development on contaminated land, in the farthest edge of town on small, dangerous roads. He has chosen to check a box on an affordable housing obligation by placing people directly in harm’s way so that the rest of town, and tourists, never have to see it. I support affordable housing, but I will never support sacrificing public health, safety and the environment to benefit a developer. I was going to ask you to appeal the ruling, I guess that’s not happening, but we must demand accountability from our leadership for what they did, and what they chose not to do. Thank you.”

🗣️Paul S. said, “When I first heard about the decision my immediate response was ‘we should immediately work to get a stay in the decision’ and we could base that on the need for the DEP to finish the evaluation of what’s going on up there on the hill. Alright? It needs to be done quickly, because in the end you don’t even get a repeal. My thinking was that we have to know what... before they start doing work to construct 200 apartments up there. It’s only going to make things worse. The city, why aren’t we—Sean got up here, I got up here months ago saying ‘why aren’t we getting West Amwell involved in this too?’ We could still get them involved in getting a stay. Their residents are up there at the same risk as ours. I can’t believe that they would want to have this suspicious stayed so yes... we never questioned the assertion that 200 units got 137 units, well that’s not economically viable for K Hov, alright. So that’s why we’ve got to now go ahead and make it 200. I don’t understand, and I don’t understand when I come here tonight why we have to roll over and play dead. Can someone explain that to me? Why are we doing that? Why aren’t we trying to fight this at some level? I really want to know. I need to know. Thanks.

Council President Lambert said, “Kelly, maybe you could clarify.”

Kelly said the judge found the city’s actions to not be consistent with affordable housing. Appeal is a viable option, but a stays take time and a decision was made to comply with the order to get immunity back as soon as possible.

🗣️Judy G. Said, “I’m an attorney and usually when judges tell you flat out what they looked for, what they needed, what they could have decided on, you realize what you left out in your submission so when this judge said a couple times, ‘no change circumstances information, no factual submissions.’ I’m not privy to everything that goes on between Council members and the Mayor of course, but I’m gonna bet a lot that there were efforts on the part of the people on this dais to say ‘include things! Include the things that tell your judge what you need to know about what’s going on on that hill.’ The environmental stuff, the PFAS stuff, all the rest of that stuff. I’m pretty comfortable saying, ‘I’m pretty sure council members were concerned that that information was not included.’ I don’t know why it wasn’t included. I can’t imagine why, but here’s what I know the consequences are of that: the public has now learned after trying to trust being nice, after trying to trust being apparently interested, trying to trust somebody who really pays attention to them, that actually when it gets right down to it, the trust was misplaced. The trust that was put on the senior members of the organization was wrongly put there, because the decisions that were made not to include, not to argue, not to fight for, took that trust, which was carefully honed over all this time, and told people, ‘you can’t trust who you thought you could trust’ and we will now pay for the fact that the 200 units will be there and the trust that was placed wrongly, as it turns out, will never come back. As we face the next development idea, nobody knows what’s in it for anybody who doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain, but we can all assume there’s something that’s in it and we don’t want it anymore. So I think that the time has come that people are now gonna be saying, ‘no no, no no no. I don’t pretend. I don’t trust nice. I don’t trust nice words. I want to see what’s really going on. And closed meetings all the time will not protect people from finding out what’s going on. So the disappointment is beyond disappoint because it’s in the face of ‘trust me’ it turns out misplaced, no result that says I will honor your trust. That’s not gonna change, and that can’t be won back after this happened.”

🗣️Sean E. said, “Just from the point of holding back the evidence, and from what it appears to be I think that is something that is if not illegal, you can get disbarred for it. And I would like to know if evidence was asked to be included that was then not included.”

Bill said it’s attorney client privilege conversation and he would not talk about it.

“You work for Lambertville,” Sean said.

People in the room started talking, and the mayor asked everyone to please speak one person at a time, and he said that Sean has the floor.

Bill said, “the city is the client.”

“You haven’t been giving any answers this whole time. You’ve been asked many times, actually, many things, the stormwater recharge, do you have an answer on that yet? the ground water recharge in a contaminated area. We asked you multiple times you said you’re gonna look it up. No response.”

The Mayor said they responded.

Sean said, “You said ‘I don’t know I’m going to have to look it up.’”

“I think I sent an email a couple months ago,” Bill said.

The Mayor said “The last time you brought this up Sean—”

Sean said, “Yeah, it was not an answer. You said he didn’t know.”

“And then Cindy found an email that specifically answered your question from Mr. Opal,” replied the Mayor.

“I never saw that email. I never received it. Can you please tell me what was in that email?” Sean asked.

“Not by memory,” replied the Mayor, “That was months ago so if you want us to find it, we’ll find it and send it to you again. There’s public record of this conversation. If we go back into the meeting recordings you’ll hear that we’ve already talked about this at least once. I’m not gonna figure out which meeting it was.”

“But nobody remembers what the answer is,” Sean said.

“Uh, sorry,” the Mayor replied.

“Can you recharge ground water in a contaminated area?” Sean asked.

“I’m not an engineer,” the Mayor replied.

“You don’t know. Exactly. He doesn’t know either,” Sean said, gesturing to Bill. “And he’s getting two hundred fifty dollars an hour to sit there and be*mdash;maybe three hundred.”

Bill shook his head no.

“My other question was gonna be for Michael Sullivan,” Sean continued, “but I see that he has conveniently left the building, because he is one of the three main reasons from what I can tell, why we lost this case, and he should be fired.“

Sean was clearly agitated, “There was his testimony that the site was suitable and developable. This was after we knew about the contamination. Um, how does he know it’s developable? Does he know how to remediate that contamination? We didn’t know the answers to the groundwater recharge issue I mean I still don’t know the answer to that but there are things that how can he speak with any authority if he does not know how it’s going to be remediated? And how much money it will cost? And does that mean they come back and say, ‘oh it’s too expensive because we have to remediate all of this contamination. We need to build 600 units.’ You know, I mean it’s just a farce. It really is. And my last comment is following up on what Karen A. said about the people on the hill taking these challenges into their own hands, removing all the tires, you know, helping to create the park, um, and helping each other sort out the titles and the deeds and everything so things could be built up there and people can live up there and I’ll just say one other thing that we’re helping each other with, because the city is not, or I should say the Mayor is not interested in helping residents.”

“Please don’t interpret what is in my brain. Don’t say ‘the mayor is not interested,’” said Mayor Nowick.

“I went on public record two meetings ago—” Sean began.

“You’re out of order, so please—” the Mayor said.

Sean continued, “You said two meetings ago that you were going to make an announcement about the residents that were struggling with PFAs, many of which are your own employees who still can’t drink their water, by the way, and you turned the knife a little bit more by basically being the sole person refusing to help residents. If that is not humiliating to you I don’t know what could possibly be.”

The mayor asked that Sean speak more generally.

“Yes. Yes, it’s generally unfathomable that a mayor—every other municipality has helped their residents—that a mayor would refuse turning the knife, pouring salt in the wound. You should be ashamed of yourself,” Sean said.

Cindy, the City Clerk, found the email. She said Sean sent his question in December of 2024, and Bill send a response on December 4, 2024.

🗣️John H. said, “Good evening. I wanted to thank that lady for the information about tires. We live at the base in a little stone house that intersects the Rock and Quarry Street and the kids used to roll the tires down and they would time it so they hit a car and the cops had to come, so by cleaning up took away a problem. On that very hill across behind public works I recall even as a kid seeing Peter and the Wolf and the wall back there used to spontaneously combust. And even when we moved in ’73 to 41 Quarry street, the fire department would come up and say, ‘oh the dump caught fire’ and it would spontaneously combust. And so there’s some really terrible nasties in that ground up there and that really needs to be taken care of but there are ways in which I’m still confused. I talked about three and a half acres here for five damn years that a guy wants to be taken a look without putting a knife to his throat but his wife and to see Julia Failed [sic] and was supposed to go see Donny Heart. There’s the facts. She wanted to be able to at least find out what builder’s solution might do to the property and maybe they can get one. Then I said that’s kinda fair. And I still think they’re talk-able. Is anybody going to go over there and talk? It’s three and a half acres. I guess not. And we begin to look at what we used to call Village Apartments, which is right across from Holcombe Farms. That does come under the historic sites council as well, kinda clear on that one, and I think if we take a step back and begin to consider the potential of some different thinking, that we can perhaps can put parking for double layer underneath it and go up a couple stories and be able to have more expensive views pay for the less expensive views that are down below and overcome the drainage situation, because the parking can be pumped out and down to the stream. There are ways in which you can do things if you want to be a little bit creative and that might be it. Begin to look at verticality in some areas, not overwhelmingly Trump towers, but we have to at least get a little more creative and of all places, they have affordable housing in Monaco and the expensive people go in these door, and the less multi-millionaires go in these doors but it’s affordable for those folks and they’ve been able to solve it with verticality. and like I said I’m not talking about a tower situation. It’s just looking at it differently. I know that if we go up—we figured it out, Barbara and I—that you put the two stories of parking underneath, go up, and then be able to make it something that would so proud to come home and go there. Just take a chance and look at it. Also, the term ‘blight.’ The Chief Justice, Zazzali, was one heck of a great guy and he used the term blight when we began to look at the determination of the need for redevelopment and he went on to say the term has evolved. The term retains its essential characteristics of stagnation negative effects but there’s no showing here, he observed that if you take a look at blight is that the properties are not developed as quickly as other property then those properties in the state would be blighted. When I bought 41 Quarry Street—Barbara and I—we had to pay clean up the property, outside, at our expense to get insurance to close. So here I’m not owning this property but I’m cleaning it up and the only reason why we got that deal with New Jersey manufacturing is one of the officers of New Jersey Bell. Now it’s the boutique street and so it just takes time and I doubt very much if we take a look at the area on Cottage Hill that in time, I see some new houses going in up there some of them are pretty damn nice then in time it too will develop and then that term that got us into this at the first time might go under control. Things don’t have a way of going away, but control is every bit as good, so I thank you very much. This has been a tough time for all of us, particularly since the reason why I have problems with my breath and breathing is that I’ve been poisoned, and so now it’s been referred to the FBI, who we refer to as the Federal Bureau of Indigestion. I can tell you right now, when you begin to suffocate on your own blood it’s an eye opener. And we have another issue that right now as I speak, at quarter of two in the morning, quarter to three, we have blasting going on in opposition to the state law which is 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday. They are cleaning off all of the vegetation. They’ve used very strong chemicals and I, from a past life, happen to know what arsenic smells like. It’s uranium of all things. The smell is strong that I reported it to the DEP. I reported a number of things to the DEP that there’s been some very heavy use of herbicide up there to kill things and if it rains very very hard, and we get flooded, we’re gonna have a lot of problems down below where we are. Now we also know that up on Douglas Street PFAS have got into the aquifers and that perhaps because of the blasting in the off hours that they unburied 55 gallon drums they can’t find may be contributing and it’s time for us to take control. Have a good evening folks, thank you.”

The Mayor said he wanted to make sure that people online had an opportunity to speak, so they turned to the people online for comments.

Online Comments

🗣️Susan R. “It is so heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking, as people are coming forward and talking how deviating this development is gonna be to their lives, to their health, to their safety, to their wellbeing. To feel like the forsaken ones is just so awful and I have to say that I came into this with an open mind and without any preconceived notions and I sat through the meetings and spoke and asked so many questions over time and just really felt consistently pushed off, consistently smoke and mirrors, consistently like things were not clear, but things did not feel right. There was something that was so off, like there were efforts to obfuscate. That’s what it felt like and I understand why people are so enraged and why people are so devastated with this process. It’s the process that has been really very questionable. I think it has, the ultimate thing where we had the opportunity to go before the court and that it seems like that opportunity was squandered. That’s not a rumor, I mean, we can read the judgement. We can see what the defense was and how poorly it was done. It was almost, it really looks as though it was done poorly on purpose in order to lose this case and I really feel so strongly that this has been mishandled and that the mayor has been consistently unempathetic, has been consistently come across as uncaring, had consistently seemed to turn his back on trying to help the people and I have seen the council members object. I have seen the council members trying to express varying views, and I have seen the mayor be ultra controlling of the process to the point where people are frustrated beyond belief and some of the rage that you’re seeing is a direct response to the way that you’re handling this, and the way that you’ve been handling the meetings themselves. I understand why the folks up on the hill feel that they’ve had their backs turned on them, uh, that you’ve turned their backs on them, and I really, I don’t really know what else to say except that this has made me feel like what’s happening here is almost like a little microcosm of some of what’s going on out there and I never felt that way about Lambertville and I feel very very sad tonight about this. And that’s all that I really want to say. I’m so sorry to the folks who are dealing with this directly. I think we’re all going to be dealing with it because I think it’s going to effect the entire town and I think it’s going to be devastating but I know for you guys it is just horrible and I am so so sorry, my heart goes out to you.”

🗣️Abigail L. returned to the podium, “I apologize I stepped out for a moment so let me know if anybody asked this already. What is the tax credit or tax incentive being offered to K. Hovnanian?”

“None right now,” Bill answered.

“None? They don’t build for nothing. Affordable housing is one of the biggest money makers right now,” Abigail said.

“We have not been approached by K. Hovnanian with any request for, or numbers related to, tax exemption,” Bill said.

“Nothing yet,” Abigail said, “Again, I have yet to hear an answer for what is the plan when they go bankrupt. It’s very obvious they’re going to go bankrupt so what is the plan when they abandon this property?”

“I’m not gonna speculate,” the Mayor said.

“We have to be able to go after them. We have to be more aggressive in terms of holding a bond,” Abigail said.

“Those are good questions,” Council President Lambert said, “and I will answer or try to answer and speculate on what we could do to protect ourselves you know in the event of that.”

Bill interjected, “So if the council approves the ordinance, and then the amended redevelopment plan, the step after that would be the city would have to enter into an agreement with K. Hovnanian that controls the construction of this project. It’ll set forth all the requirements that they have to get, governmental approvals, whatever governmental approvals they need for example the planning board, probably many others local and state, and then one of the other provisions in that agreement would govern what would happen if they were in a situation where they became insolvent or they were foreclosed on. Their mortgage lender would have to take over the property—”

“But that’s the mortgage lender, that’s not the city,” Abigail said.

“The city doesn’t own the property,” Bill said, “so the city would not have the right to foreclose on them.”

Abigail asked, “But what about the damage being done to the surrounding properties? And what about the road being closed to help K. Hovnanian with this disgusting project? What is, does the city have a minimum bond that needs to be held in order for K. Hovnanian to proceed in order to protect people on this hill in the most measly of ways?”

Bill answered, "When they make their planning board application they’ll be required to post performance bonds at that time and that’s based on their construction costs, among other things, and then for two years after they get approvals, if they get approvals, they’d be required to post a maintenance bond in order to maintain whatever was approved up there and constructed up there. There are those measures in place that would provide some security to the city on one end, um, and then insure that if they have an issue with, um, bankruptcy or whatever other financial issues that they have that someone would essentially step in their shoes and be required to fulfill the obligation.”

“Alright, so, uh, have any other builders made bids for this site other than K. Hovnanian?” Abigail asked.

Bill replied, “No, because K. Hovnanian is first link to the property owner so weren’t privy to any of the conversations that—”

“And no one on the Council speaks to the property owner?” Abigail asked.

“That relationship is not great. It’s a little bit acrimonious,” Bill said.

“Sounds like that relationship should be improved so we could encourage him to accept someone who is more ethical and maybe not going to completely decimate the land,” Abigail said.

“We can’t control who he’s selling to,” Bill said, “I will say that the property owner has sued the city a number of times over the last twenty years so there’s a reason. It’s not an arbitrary reason why the relationship has not been a workable—”

“And so can the people of this hill vote down something if we don’t feel the bond is appropriate? Abigail asked.

“It’s a performance bond so they’re—” Bill started to answer.

Abigail continued, “It’s a performance bond. You said also it’s a maintenance bond, and I remember K. Hovnanian in a previous meeting had mentioned some very very low numbers, and again two years is not a very long time for maintenance bond, because things will probably start to collapse in more than two years, hopefully you know things aren’t blown down by the first storm that comes through. So two years after, when we’re all being poisoned by our wells, and the houses are starting to crack through, what does the city, does the city just say whoops we didn’t think this through.”

Bill said, “The municipal land use law sets the requirements for what kind of performance bonds and what kind of maintenance bonds, and the amounts that they need, and there’s a statutory. It’s laid out in the municipal land use law about what those amounts will be.”

Abigail concluded, “I just want to note that this whole affordable housing and rental thing is exactly what everyone’s going with. They want you to no longer be a homeowner. K. Hovnanian and the like are going to take—they want to make homeownership a rarity. They’re going pushing out the poor population, the people on this hill, and they want you to go out and rent. They’re saying, ‘just go find another place, go rent somewhere.’ That’s their solution. They don’t care about us. They don’t care about us. You have to fight the K. Hovnanian. You have to fight the relateds, the RSR, the Goldman Sachs, the Blackstones. K. Hovnanian is a drop in the bucket. You have to fight them, because they are going to keep scooping up this land until we stop them. Foreign and national companies like K. Hovnanian are just one of many that are going to keep developing our land until we say ‘enough is enough.’ You have to stop them from buying our land, because they shouldn’t be allowed to. We can all see from this process, K. Hovnanian and the like should not be allowed to buy big tracts of land like this. And again, they’re a tiny little piece of fluff in the nut, in everything that’s going on.”

🗣️Dave B. said, “This is a question directly or the attorney of affordable housing. Could you give us thirty seconds on the stay? What would be the basis of requesting a stay, and what kind of time and money is involved. Okay, thirty seconds. We don’t know anything about it, so.”

Kelly said “So I can speak in generalities. I don’t want to speak towards this case, number one, because that’s a litigation strategy. Number two, I represent you so I could tell you no different than what you might read online, very basic. What a stay means in general is the judge issued an order and, as I said, the compliance or effectiveness of that order begins immediately, so July 8th or the next day in general. A stay asks, the judge made the decision, the underlying initial decision, to let the parties keep status quo. No movement while another court evaluates that underlying decision.”

“And that’s basically it?” Dave asked. “Alright, good. And nothing that we’ve done so far would preclude us from applying for a stay?”

“There’s a timeline, a court ruled outline where the stay must be filed just like other motions and litigation,” Kelly said.

“That was very helpful, thank you.” Dave said, “I’ve lived in Lambertville, West Amwell all of my seventy six years. Alright, although I look like I’m thirty nine. I’ve sat up at the front, okay, when I served on city council, uh, and I spoke about the importance of working as a team. Sitting out in the audience, and I think others may feel the same way, it’s pretty apparent, okay, that there’s not a team of five, alright. That, because people have expressed concerns, people have made suggestions and whether we look at this document sent to the judge and we get all that information, okay, and when I saw his judgement, okay, I’ll tell ya, I was sick to my stomach. Alright, because it should not have happened. And the five of you have to set up and say, ‘why did it happen’ and now get a stop, alright, and do something about. Mayor, and I’ll take that back. They Mayor voted we work as a team, alright, there’s something wrong with the team, alright, and something’s got to give because the community is going to be in big trouble. Thank you.”

🗣️Karen A. returned to say, “I just want to respond to somebody that talked about West Amwell. I am a West Amwell residence. My friends to the house next to me is a Lambertville, that’s how close I am, and I am in that section that has the highest, um, contamination. I’m like fourteen percent over, a hundred and forty over the limit. West Amwell, I have talked to all of them. All of the ones that are on the committee. None of them support this, but unfortunately, because it’s in a different municipality, they cannot do anything. They cannot tell Lambertville don’t do it, try it this way, but understand they do not agree with what you’re doing. That is not a place to be putting in that many homes, and I just want to clarify that for somebody.”

🗣️Eva W. said, “We’ve only been here for three years, so I’m here asking questions for my own edification. our council, not our council, our lawyer for the city, Mr. Opel, are you a resident?”

“No,” Bill replied.

“You’re not, and I can’t remember your last name,” Karen said, gesturing to Kelly.

“Grant,” Kelly said, “No, I’m not.”

“You’re not a resident. And the gentleman who is part of the planning over there, Michael Sullivan. Is he a resident of Lambertville?”

The Council answered, “No.”

“So this is from somebody that’s only been here for three years, but our forty one hundred people, half of them are lawyers and it seems like some of them would be really good council for our city, because they live here and whether the decisions that are made would be very personal and that’s some of the disconnect we’re feeling. We’re feeling shut out and that our personal lives are not being taken into consideration with the future of this town that we love so much. Thank you,” Eva concluded.

🗣️Bob N. said, “A lot of people are commenting tonight about all the problems up on the hill and why it shouldn’t be done. Is it over? Are we just spinning our wheels here? Or are you seriously considering alternative sites? I know you talked about the Village Apartments, I know there’s some kind of talk going on with them. Even if that went through, you’re still gonna have to build up on the hill, right? That won’t, that won’t solve anything. So are there other alternative sites being considered or have you basically given up and this is what we have to do?”

“It’s not a question of giving up, but I’ll let Kelly answer this,” said Mayor Nowick.

“I don’t meant giving up, but are we gonna lose the site?” Bob clarified.

“The high school site was part of our third round mechanism, so Kelly, why don’t you take over,” said the Mayor.

“Specifically the court order is to comply with the development of two hundred unit residential homes and apartments up on the high school site, so um, I’m not sure.” Kelly said. “That’s what the Council decided, they said they were going to comply with that, otherwise right now we have exposure to other developers coming in seeking builder’s remedies for higher densities involving parcels in the city.”

Bob said, “So it sounds like we have no choice according to the judge. We have to go up there.”

“Oh,” Kelly said, “Yes. correct The K. Hovnanian folks sued the city to do that.”

“So we have to pursue that, we’re not looking at alternative sites.” Bob asked.

“They’re currently the contract purchaser for that site and they have a plan and the judge has said the city needs to work with them to create this,” Kelly said.

“So our plan would basically be to try to prove to the judge why they can’t do it up there,” Bob said.

“Because we never sent them the data,” Jeff T. interjected.

Bob continued, “Then if he agrees, then you can’t build up there, because of all the groundwater pollution, then what?”

Jeff T. said, "It’s not in our case"

“We still have to provide the affordable housing, right?” Bob asked.

“One person at a time, please,” requested the Mayor.

Bob continued, “We still have to go forward with affordable housing even if the judge tells everyone ‘you know all the people down here are right I’m not gonna let you build anything up there,’ so what do we do then? Do we still have a plan? I mean, I mean, the Village Apartments but that won’t be enough. What do you do?”

Council President Lambert said, “I think those are separate, um, it’s conflating separate, um, I don’t want to use the word projects, let’s just use the word project. So my understanding is the high school site is a private sale, the city has no part in the sale of the property. It’s part of an agreement that the city was, um, had with the court which gave us something called immunity from this builder’s remedy. Um, the developer, K. Hovnanian, was unhappy with our decision not to continue their project, if you will, for the two hundred units and they sued us. The judge agreed with them. So other sites, they’re kind of, they’re just other sites. Like you can’t swap one out for the other. The 295 N. Main Street Village Apartments, that’s got its own trajectory, you know, road map if you will. And as any other redevelopment or affordable housing project would have its own path. This order from the judge really just applies to this specific property and we are in a corner. Okay.”

“It’s like a catch twenty two, if we fight and win up on the hill, which would be great for the people that live up there, but we’re not out of it.” Bob said.

Council President Lambert replied, “Well, even if we fight, as Kelly mentioned earlier, we would, we have lost our immunity from this builder’s remedy, which basically means any developer can come in on any piece of property, or any piece of vacant land, and buy the property and build whatever they want and call it affordable housing.”

“You said any piece of property, any piece?” Bob asked.

Council President Lambert said, “Vacant land, well, any developable land, so—”

“But they can’t go to somebody’s existing home and say ’we’re going to take that,’” asked Bob.

“No,” Councilwoman Kominsky said, “but if you wanted to build on a site that already had a building you could say, ‘hey, I’ve got a great idea’ and do more. So in a way I guess what we’re trying to say is, and like we’re not happy about it, is that they forced our hand up there so there’s no swap up there.”

Council President Lambert added, “And if we dig in our heels and try to fight this order, we expose ourselves to this whole builder’s remedy. It’s a risk, okay? Because it’s basically, it’s like the wild west. They have a lot of latitude to do what they want on property that they own wherever it is in the community with like, no rules. So that is probably something that would be worse than where we are. I’m not saying that where we are is good, but it can get worse.”

Councilman Stegman said, “If I could just chime in. If we have no protection, then a developer could buy a row of houses, knock ’em down, and build a high rise.”

“Wait you just said they couldn’t,” said Bob.

“Buy them from owners,” confirmed Councilwoman Lambert, “Nobody is taking anything from anyone, but, you know, I live in a house, right. A developer can come and say ‘hey you’ve got a cute little one and a half story cape. I’m gonna buy it from ya,’ then apply for builder’s remedy and put up a high rise in my neighborhood.”

“But you can tell them no,” Bob said.

“I can’t, because I sold the property to them,” Council President Lambert said.

“Oh, but you agreed to sell it, yeah sure, yeah yeah” said Bob.

“Yeah, I agreed to sell it and then they applied to the court and the court says ‘well ya got no immunity so knock yourself out.’ So that’s the risk.” Council President Lambert said.

Someone seated in the room said, “But you had a stay in the meantime, and you were introducing new evidence that had not been included.”

“But listen, it’s the immunity, and we’re at risk as long as we do not have the immunity,” said Councilwoman Lambert, “So it’s like how long do you want to be in a room full of people with Covid without a vaccine?”

“The most important thing too is,” said Councilman Lide, “there’s no guarantee for a stay, and it’s a very high standard. The appeal is 14-16 months right now before you have a decision if you don’t get the stay, so there’s a lot of risk.”

🗣️Sean E. said, “I just have a follow up question to that so, because we lost our immunity, tomorrow the Village Apartments developers could sue us and build whatever they want there. And then what happens if they say, ‘well we’re gonna fulfill your whole obligation and we’re gonna get it done, you know, before K. Hov’ then is that the wild west and they can do that, and then K. Hov is out?”

“K. Hov doesn’t own 295 N. Main Street,” Council President Lambert said.

“No, but a developer could,” Sean said.

“Would one cancel out the other?” said Councilwoman Kominsky.

“That’s like stuck to the judge’s order,” Council President Lambert said.

🗣️Jeff T. “I don’t know why you keep going around in circles. The reason we can’t appeal is because we lost the case, because we didn’t put the evidence in front of the judge, we didn’t do the studies, we didn’t bring in the experts, and we lost and we have no grounds to appeal. That’s the reason we lost and that’s the reason we can’t appeal. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place because of that. The other point that I wanted to make is that you’re making builder’s remedy bigger than it is. Yes you could get sued, but you also have a guide. The reason that the appeal would be a problem is because Hovnanian could go to court tomorrow and then have their judgement—the chances of someone coming in right away isn’t gonna necessarily happen and even if it does, K. Hov will be the first one in the door. But the main reason is because we lost the case, because we put in a—I’m not gonna curse, I am pulling myself back—because we didn’t put in the evidence that we needed to do, to have a chance. And that’s the way it came out. We didn’t have alternatives, we didn’t have our experts. We lost. And now we’re going to be looking at two hundred units on top of the hill with twenty foot high retaining walls that’s gonna be visible from here to probably Bowman’s Tower. And we’re gonna be looking at storm water coming down, because you can’t control stormwater on that slope. You’re gonna clear cut twelve acres. You’re gonna lose the absorption of that water. I have my friends who live over on, um, on South Main and Ferry, they’re gonna see more flooding, as will I and that’s the bottom line. And then we’re gonna go broke paying for the infrastructure improvements to try to fix the stormwater problems, to try to fix the traffic problems, to try to deal with all the other issues that this is gonna raise, plus all the school kids. That’s the bottom line. And then for the woman who mentioned, Hovnanian’s not building affordable housing, it’s Michaels. And Michaels is a subsidiary of Apollo, which is a hedge fund, and so that’s the big corporation. And the hedge fund, they’re the surviving partner of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Remember those crooks? And Drexel Burnham Lambert was the biggest provider of junk bonds for K. Hovnanian, so it all comes full circle, and we’re the ones that are being circled.”

🗣️Sandy H. “If we did a stay, I just have some simple questions, and we then provided the information that was left out of the original presentation—”

“You can’t,” Jeff T. interjected.

Sandy continued, “Will that not at least give the judge the ability to see that the land is contaminated? Or can we call the feds and ask them to evaluate and shut that land down? Is there any possibility of that? Those are my questions.”

Bill answered, “The standard for a site is that it’s based on the record below, so it’s not the time to introduce new evidence so that’s one issue. You can’t create something for an appeal that wasn’t, that didn’t exist and that wasn’t part of the record below. The second question: NJDEP has, they’re investigating the property.”

Mayor said, “All of those papers were submitted to the judge...”

Bill continued, “The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is the one looking at it right now. I’m not aware of whether the EPA is aware of the site or isn’t involved, but to our knowledge that’s not the case right now. It’s a state level matter. ”

“Can we move it forward to the federal level?” someone asked.

“It actually is on the superfund site on the federal EPA site,” Cindy said.

Bill continued, “Since this has all come up we haven’t had any conversations with them, but remediation’s going to have to comply with, whatever remediation takes place up there is going to have to comply with, you know, state regulations, federal regulations that are applicable, so all that’s going to have to be considered. This project’s gonna go forward and they’re gonna be required to remediate any portion of it to residential standards.”

There were no more public comments.

Council’s Final Thoughts

Councilwoman Kominsky said, “Before I get to the matter, there’s a lot to say here, but the one thing that I want to start off with just a little gratitude, because, you know I firmly believe that we as a town have got to stop asking our citizens to defend themselves and not get down in the weeds with them. And Karen and Sean and Beth have taught me that, Sandy too, more than ever, because what they’ve done up on the hill with the PFAS problem—I got into it late, you’re the generals and you really solved the problem that was totally embarrassed that we weren’t in on more and, and you have a great community. Some of, you know, you know, but we cannot like leave people out there on their own all the time and then ask them to defend themselves to the developer that comes in to the guy who’s given them a problem, but we gotta stop doing that. You’re asking us to lead, right? And look up staying with you on DEP we understand what’s going on now, but it’s not because we’re up there, it’s because you all did the work and created it. We need to partner with West Amwell. Thank god they sent a letter to the commissioner and, and, you know we’ve talked with them—Karen and I have talked with them up there—and it’s just so important now more than ever to be able to do that but I, I just can’t see us doing that we can’t continue to do that and I committed not to do that and I learn from you, but we cannot do that. We can’t send people out, ‘oh you go meet with so and so and come up with a solution.’ No. We are supposed to defend, you know, be putting our finger on the dike for you guys, you know. Um, you know, I think you know where I’ve stood on this, like I’ve stood a lot with you, we were at the planning board together, we have done a lot of work on this, you know, and, look, I’ve offered my analysis of the issues. I have not, you know, been happy, not happy with the, with a lot of the suggestions that, you know, we’ve had as Council people, I have had that were quite, I feel have falled on deaf ears. You know and I feel you know that’s not, it’s not an excuse on my part. It isn’t, because where we are, um, and and we’re here, and we kinda got trapped here and, and um, and you know, I’m, you know I have to hear from you. I, I can’t say I’m happy about it but we, the case needed to be better and it wasn’t. I don’t know that we would’ve been there but you know, I’ll, you know, take ownership of that but I want to say that I I’ve tried and I hope that I’ve been responsive and I want to be like more responsive, because some of the best work and the best times I’ve had have been hanging out with you solving problems, it’s been really good. but what I head people saying in this is that you really want to see a different kind of leadership, right? And I am totally, I am with that, because we need to follow up on this PFAS problem hands on, right? None of this, ‘oh tell me what happened’ you know, you really, it’s a, it’s a day to day thing. There are people with individual needs that, you know, it’s like whack a mole. But without our generals out there, believe me, we weren’t doing the job and you know I’m happy to be on the job and assist you at your direction. We have to be able to take a hold of this stormwater system issue that we have had. We talk about it. Okay, we didn’t do a stormwater utility, which would’ve taxed you more. So but what we need to do, what I have asked, and again, talk about, like, kinda the damage part of it is we need to do an RFP, we need a bigger engineer to come in and evaluate the system, and tell me where the problems are, cost out projects, and then so you can develop a capital plan how to deal with it because how can we have, we have people coming to this town that want to do things that haven’t been done before in a stormwater system that we moan and groan about being, like, inadequate. Well Jesus, like you do, like I said to my son, you’re going to complain about your car about the air conditioning, take it to Pep Boys and get it some Freon in it. You know, like, if you’re gotta take the action. We have to be preventative, you know we’re responsible for our town. We have to be the stewards, you know. We do have to review the master plan and change it. We are out of, of, of, step. And we need to get somebody else to do it who’s gonna offer some new suggestions. We can put out an RFP. That’s why they tell you and they give you some help on how to do it. We have to pass a resolution to go to DOT, which I have asked for so we can do a pedestrian safety plan on safe highways. We can’t do it without passing a resolution. Again, it just hasn’t happened. But we need to lead. We need to be more transparent, and we need to not put everything in recovery but that’s all now for another story, but we need to lead. We need to be good stewards. Um, we need to be much better stewards and I don’t want to drone on and on, it’s late, but um, that’s my two cents.

Councilman Lide said, “It’s getting late and I don’t have too much different to offer than what Karen just said, and I agree with those recommendations that you made. I think we need to take action on that so we can make sure the city’s in a better spot, uh, but I do want to just briefly speak about the the appeal and why I, unfortunately the city’s in this position. Um, there is simply too much risk for us, uh, if it’s not an automatic stay, the order, um, you know there’s the 295 N. Main project. There’s other available spots and there’s the Coryell Street project and what if that developer says, ‘oh I want to provide affordable housing and then I’m going to build this huge hotel.’ If we don’t have immunity, we can’t stop that, so I understand why you’re frustrated. I’m frustrated. We’re all frustrated. Um, you know, this is. It’s a tough decision. It’s a decision I’m not happy with, but unfortunately I think it’s the decision that, you know, when you’re dealt a hand and this is the hand in front of you, this is the best decision for the city um, so that’s why I’m going to go ahead with it.”

Council President Lambert said, “I agree with both my Council, fellow Council members. I think there are a lot of, um, hard questions asked tonight. Um, we didn’t get many answers, and probably never will. You know, why wasn’t the contamination information included in a brief? Um, why wasn’t a list of alternative sites prepared in advance? Um, you know, those are good questions, and I think the public deserves an answer to those things, now that the dust has settled. Um, I think I head a lot of, I want to say disturbing in the sense of not personally offensive, but just out of empathy, disturbing from an empathetic point of view about how disappointed the community is and rightfully so. How much we let down the residents of Connaught Hill by not including the things that were brought up, you know, not having them be part of our filing. But I think the most disturbing thing I’ve heard tonight was about the loss of trust and that is something that really you can’t buy it. You can’t talk your way into it. You can’t sweet talk, smile, and, and you know, you have to earn it. And once it’s lost it’s really really hard to regain. And I personally will take that feedback and think about that. Okay, um, because I think whatever I do, we do, we have to think about we have to think about being stewards of the public. We have to think about being forthright, even if we’re telling you things you don’t like to hear, but we have to be forthright and transparent about what we do. Um, you know, staying quiet on a topic when the going gets tough doesn’t help. It misleads the listener into thinking there’s tacit agreement. That need to, that can’t happen. So as people know I am not one to be in silent agreement or silent on anything, but, um, anyway, I appreciate everyone coming tonight and giving us your hard-hitting feedback.”

Councilman Stegman said, “I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed that it took council so long to revoke K. Hov’s temporary, uh, designation as temporary or designated developer. What it took many meetings with the public, which gave us input and heard your concerns and, uh, and brought them to light, uh, over the past few months, um, I apologize for not being more, uh, aggressive in ending our relationship with K. Hov and it was due to the input of those who aren’t here right now, but the input of those who are in here right now. Thusly, it has put us in a terrible terrible position as far as Fair Share and our obligations to Fair Share and K. Hov has some pretty darn good attorneys. And they proved how good they were by winning this. So the, so the question is, is, do we gamble that the court will do anything, and based on information that you’ve heard here tonight, and information that we have heard as well between us, is that the risk is very high that we won’t get a stay and that we will not win an appeal. And during that time period, starting now, we are in really—we have our, we have our protections stripped from us from any other developer who wants to come into town and that’s very frank. We took into consider—I took into consideration with the problems that the site had, and uh, I’m heartened that the DEP is now looking to see where the PFAS came from, and that the DEP is gonna be testing, eventually, testing the high school site again and there will have to be remediation done. Things will have to be done according to DEP standards and that will perhaps delay the project, but as far as us going and, and going down the path that is bad, but not as bad, and I feel for you. I feel for people of Connaught Hill. I, I, I can’t imagine what you’re going through. And I, you know, my butt’s been in this chair when we cleaned up Connaught Hill with the help of Connaught Hill and got, and cleared titles on Connaught Hill to make it a more viable community, and payed some attention to Connaught Hill, which hasn’t been paid attention to before with vehicles and tires. I know. I lived it with you guys. Um, but, but, uh, we’ll control what we control about how they’re gonna proceed and build this thing. There is still a lot of negotiating that I believe will go on. I know certain things that weren’t resolved. Um, but, I, I, I just can’t feel taking the risk that puts the city in a worse spot than it is now, and uh I hear ya and I share the responsibility for not being more vocal in public, well until towards, I did become more vocal in public towards the end my thoughts about this but I don’t want to say anything out of, out of scope to where it gets into a legal matter, but I do feel, I feel so badly for letting you down and it’s a relatively new feeling I have after all these—this is the worst, this is the worst I have ever experienced being on Council. This is the worst decision you got to make as council members, but the stakes are so high, that, that you are all in my thoughts and my prayers and will do the best that I can with the Council and the Mayor to make sure the impact is not as negative as it seems to be. I’m not justifying anything, but you have, you have a Mayor and Council that hears you now very loud and clear, and that has heard you. And going forward we know the roles we have to take in your benefit and um, um I’m standing here with you guys. Going forward I have to make sure whatever happens on the hill can, can hopefully not impact as bad as it may. So, uh, thank you for your, thank you for coming out all of these weeks, all of these hearings, all of the planning boards, the council meetings, and we’re in a position where we’ve got to through the process again. And it brea—I can’t say it breaks my heart enough. Very disappointed that it has gotten to this point in a city that of course everyone sitting here loves and wants the best for. So that’s kinda sums me up on that one there.

“Can I make a quick comment?” Karen A. asked

“No,” said the Mayor.

Karen continued, “It seems like we have no choice in this, but in the future, could you involve us in some of these decisions that’s gonna be made up there? Can we have a little committee that can meet together with you guys and say, ‘this needs to be addressed, that needs to be addressed’? No more behind closed doors. Have us get involved with this.”

“These are legal questions. I’m not going to answer any more questions tonight,” replied the Mayor.

“Why?” Karen asked.

Councilman Lide said, “Well I can tell you this. You all wanted as much transparency as possible and we hear what you’re saying and we will make sure we are as transparent as the law allows us.”

“Or as the Mayor allows it,” someone in the room quipped.

“Mayor, get behind us,” another person called out.

“Ask the Mayor what he’ll allow you to do,” said Mark V.

Councilman Lide continued, “I don’t want to make a promise now, but I can tell you we’ll be as transparent as we possibly can. We hear you.”

Mayor Nowick said, “Um, thank you for coming out tonight. Um, I echo Councilman Stegman’s comments about loving the city. I do love the city. I remember early in 2022, when we were in a closed session meeting when then Councilman Sanders said ‘this is hard, and this is going to be hard’ and it has been hard, and it’s going to continue to be hard and it’s been painful for members of the community and members of the Council, uh, and I suspect even some of our professionals have experienced some pain throughout this process. Um, but I’m not gonna address every, uh, last thought tonight about why people may or may not trust me, um, or or uh, uh, why or why not, why why I may not speak. I don’t always speak, and some of that is because uh, I’m not comfortable speaking all of the time. I feel as though I do much better in a one-on-one conversation with people and I’ve always encouraged people for those conversations, uh, and and I have a responsibility to the city to follow the laws and to do my best to make sure that the city is running well and the Council is always informed. Uh, the idea that we don’t work as a team is uh, I, I , I would take issue with that. Um we may not always agree but throughout this process I would just remind, uh, the public and the council until we, uh, went through this there wasn’t a single no vote on anything that the council considered, uh, up to and including the, the introduction of the redevelopment. So you know the idea that we’re not working as a team I, I take issue with. We don’t always agree. We have different perspectives. We have different styles. We have different outlooks. The idea that, um, even in terms of litigation it’s not really typically common for, uh, a Mayor who works under the Faulkner act, to engage the council in matters of litigation, and yet I did again and again and again. I’m not gonna get into why, um, why some, why some things may or may not have been considered. That’s not appropriate for discussion here, but uh, you know in terms of trust I don’t know what to say about that. I’ve worked very hard and I’ve tried to be a person of integrity, uh, throughout this process. I’ve followed the law. I’ve listened to the council members. I’ve listened to the public. Um, I’ve done what I can and um that’s all I have to say, so uh, I thank everybody for coming tonight and I ask for a motion to adjourn.”

The motion was sustained and the meeting came to an end.

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