There is hereby established pursuant to P.L. 1975, c. 291 (N.J.S.A.
40:55D-1 et seq.) a Planning Board of seven members, consisting of
four classes of members as follows:
A. Class I: the Mayor or the Mayor's designee in the absence of the
Mayor.
B. Class II: one of the officials of the municipality other than a member
of the governing body, to be appointed by the Mayor.
C. Class III: a member of the governing body, appointed by the governing
body.
D. Class IV: four citizens of the municipality, to be appointed by the
Mayor. The members of Class IV shall hold no other municipal office,
except that one such member may be a member of the Zoning Board of
Adjustment and one member may be a member of the Board of Education.
The term of the Mayor (Class I) shall correspond with his official
tenure, or, if the member is the Mayor's designee in the absence of
the Mayor, the designee shall serve at the pleasure of the Mayor during
the Mayor's official tenure. The terms of the members composing Class
II and Class III shall be for one year or shall terminate at the completion
of their respective terms of office, whichever occurs first. The term
of a Class IV member who is also a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment
or the Board of Education shall terminate whenever he is no longer
a member of such other body or at the completion of his Class IV term,
whichever occurs first. The terms of all Class IV members first appointed
pursuant to this chapter shall be so determined that, to the greatest
practicable extent, the expiration of such term shall be evenly distributed
over the first four years after their appointment as determined by
resolution of the governing body; provided, however, that no term
of any member shall exceed four years and further provided that nothing
herein shall affect the term of any present member of the Planning
Board, all of whom shall continue in office until the completion of
the term for which they were appointed. Thereafter all Class IV members
shall be appointed for terms of four years except as otherwise herein
provided. All terms shall run from January 1 of the year in which
the appointment was made.
All members of the Planning Board shall serve without compensation.
The final disposition of any matter by the Board shall require
the concurring vote of four of its members.
When any hearing before a Planning Board shall carry over two
or more meetings, a member of the Board who was absent for one or
more of the meetings shall be eligible to vote on the matter upon
which the hearing was conducted, notwithstanding his absence from
one or more of the meetings; provided, however, that such Board member
has available to him a transcript or recording of the meeting from
which he was absent and certifies in writing to the Board that he
has read such transcript or listened to such recording.
The Planning Board is authorized to adopt bylaws and such other
rules and regulations as shall be consistent with the provisions of
this chapter and P.L. 1975, c .291 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.). The
Planning Board shall elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman from the members
of Class IV, select a Secretary who may or may not be a member of
the Planning Board or a municipal employee, and create and fill such
other offices as are established by this chapter. It may employ, or
contract for, and fix the compensation of legal counsel, other than
the Municipal Attorney, and experts and other staff and services as
it may deem necessary, not exceeding, exclusive of gifts or grants,
the amount appropriated by the governing body for its use.
The Planning Board shall be governed by and shall have such
powers as are conferred upon it by P.L. 1975, c. 291. The Planning Board shall have the authority to:
A. Prepare, adopt and, from time to time, amend or revise a Master Plan.
B. Grant conditional approval.
(1) Exercise control over the granting of approval of conditional uses
and grant to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions
as the Zoning Board of Adjustment:
(a)
Variances from lot area, lot dimensional, setback and yard requirements,
provided that relief from lot area requirements shall not be granted
for more than one lot. If more than one lot is involved, the Zoning
Board of Adjustment shall act on the variance and, if granted, the
Planning Board shall review the development application.
(b)
Direction for issuance of a permit for a building or structure
in the bed of a mapped street or public drainageway, flood control
basin or public area reserved on an Official Map.
(c)
Direction for issuance of a permit for a building or structure
not related to a street.
(2) Whenever an application for approval of a conditional use includes
a request for relief under this section, the Planning Board shall
grant or deny approval of the application within 95 days after submission
by a developer of a complete application to the administrative officer
or within such time as may be consented to by the applicant. Failure
of the Planning Board to act within the period prescribed shall constitute
approval of the application and a certificate of the administrative
officer as to the failure of the Planning Board to act shall be issued
on request of the applicant, and it shall be sufficient in lieu of
the written endorsement or other evidence of approval herein required
and shall be so accepted by the county recording officer.
C. Exercise such other duties as may be assigned to it by ordinance
or resolution of the governing body and perform such other functions
as may be authorized by law.
[Added 5-14-2003 by Ord. No. 5-03]
The Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment be hereby consolidated
in accordance with statute, and the consolidation shall take effect
within 60 days of the final enactment of this section.