BRIELLE — The Brielle Council has tabled a resolution that would have submitted the borough’s third and fourth round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan to the state program for final approval.
While it would have been lawful for the council to accept a motion at the Tuesday, May 27, meeting of the mayor and council, the resolution authorizing the plan’s endorsement and submission to the New Jersey housing program was tabled until the next council meeting on June 9. The deadline to submit this plan, according to the borough’s affordable housing attorney Jeffrey Surenian, is June 30.
The tabling came about at the request of several members of the public after it was brought up that the item was unintentionally left off the night’s agenda.
Several residents, including Virginia Loftin, who lives near one of the prospective affordable housing areas, said that she was aware of several people who did not attend Tuesday night’s meeting because they read the agenda and were under the impression that affordable housing would not be discussed at the meeting.
“When did you put this on the agenda?” Loftin asked. “A number of people living on Borrie Avenue probably didn’t show up because it is not online.”
After it was determined that a clerical error caused the affordable housing plan endorsement and submission to not appear on the online agenda, another resident, James Bond, requested that, despite the resolution vote being legally acceptable, the resolution be removed from the agenda until the next council meeting.
“It’s not sufficient to say that the public has been informed and information disseminated to the press when they have an opportunity — and a right — to publish or not publish,” Bond said. “Since people…don’t have it on (their agendas), it seems to me it’s appropriate to table that issue until it is on the agenda properly.”
The resolution was tabled in a 4-0 vote until the June 9 council meeting. Councilmen Eliot Colon and John Visceglia were not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
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