The Planning Board shall exercise, to the same
extent and subject to the same restrictions, all the powers of a Board
of Adjustment, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-25(c).
The Board shall adopt such rules and regulations
as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions and purposes
of this article. In the issuance of subpoenas, administration of oaths
and taking of testimony, the provisions of the County and Municipal
Investigations Law of 1953 (N.J.S.A. 2A:67A-1, et seq.) shall apply.
Where the application for development involves
relief pursuant to Subsection d of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70 (a "d" variance),
the Class I and Class III members shall be legislatively excluded
from participation and voting. The alternate member shall not sit
for the aforementioned Class I and Class III members whenever the
Board considers relief pursuant to Subsection d of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70.
This reduction in voting membership preserves the statutory scheme
of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70 requiring the affirmative vote of five members
of the statutory seven-member Board to grant a "d" variance.
In exercising the above-mentioned power, the
Planning Board Acting as a Board of Adjustment may, in conformity
with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq. or amendments thereto
or subsequent statutes applying, reverse or affirm wholly or partly
or may modify the order, requirement, decision, or determination appealed
from, and make such other requirement, decision or determination as
ought to be made, and to that end have all the powers of the administrative
officer from whom the appeal was taken.
Any variance from the terms of this article
hereafter granted by the Planning Board acting as a Board of Adjustment
permitting the erection or alteration of any structure or structures,
or permitting a specified use of any premises, shall expire by limitation
unless such construction or alteration shall have been actually commenced
on each and every structure permitted by said variance, or unless
such permitted use has actually been commenced, within one year from
the date of publication of the notice of the judgment or determination
of the Board of Adjustment; except, however, that the running of the
period of limitation herein provided shall be tolled from the date
of filing an appeal, or to a court of competent jurisdiction, until
the termination in any manner of such appeal or proceeding.
The Planning Board acting as a Board of Adjustment
shall have such powers as are granted by law to:
A. Hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the
appellant that there is error in any order, requirement, decision
or refusal made by an administrative official or agency based on or
made in the enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance.
B. Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the
map or Zoning Ordinance, or for decisions upon other special questions
upon which such Board is authorized by the Zoning Ordinance to pass.
C. Where by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness,
or shape of a specific piece of property, or by reason of exceptional
topographic conditions, or by reason of other extraordinary and exceptional
situation or condition of such piece of property, the strict application
of any regulation in the Zoning Ordinance would result in peculiar
and exceptional practical difficulties to or exceptional and undue
hardship upon the owner of such property, to grant upon an application
or an appeal relating to such property, a variance from such strict
application, so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship; provided,
however, that no variance shall be granted under this subsection to
allow a structure or use in a district restricted against such structure
or use; and further provided that the proposed development does not
require approval by the Planning Board of a subdivision, site plan
or conditional use in conjunction with which the Planning Board shall
review a request for a variance pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-60.
D. Grant a variance to allow a structure or use in a
district restricted against such structure or use in particular cases
and for special reasons, but only by the affirmative vote of at least
2/3 of the full authorized membership of the Board. No variance or
other relief may be granted under the provisions of this section unless
such variance or other relief can be granted without substantial detriment
to the public good and will not substantially impair the intent and
purpose of the zone plan and Zoning Ordinance. Any application under
any subsection of this section may be referred to any appropriate
person or agency, including the Planning Board, for its report provided
that such reference shall not extend the period of time within which
the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall act.
The Planning Board acting as a Board of Adjustment
shall render its decision no later than 120 days after the date an
appeal is taken from the decision of an administrative officer, or
the submission of a complete application for development to the Board
pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-72. Failure of the Board
to render a decision within such one-hundred-twenty-day period or
within such other time as may be consented to by the applicant shall
constitute a decision favorable to the applicant.