There is hereby established a Planning Board of nine members consisting of the following four classes:
A. 
Class I. The Mayor or the Mayor's designee.
B. 
Class II. One of the officials of the Borough other than a member of the Council, to be appointed by the Mayor. If there is an Environmental Commission, a member of the Environmental Commission who is also a member of the Planning Board shall be the Class II Planning Board member.
C. 
Class III. A member of the Borough Council to be appointed by it.
D. 
Class IV. Six other citizens of the Borough to be appointed by the Mayor. The members of Class IV shall hold no other municipal office, except that one Class IV member may be a member of the Board of Education. A member of the Environmental Commission who is also a member of the Planning Board, as required by law, shall be a Class IV member.
A. 
The term of the Class I member shall correspond with his/her official tenure.
B. 
The terms of the Class II and Class III members shall be for one year or shall terminate at the completion of their respective terms of office, whichever occurs first.
C. 
The term of a Class II or a Class IV member who is also a member of the Environmental Commission shall be for three years or shall terminate at the completion of his/her term of office as a member of the Environmental Commission, whichever occurs first.
D. 
The term of a Class IV member who is also a member of the Board of Education shall terminate whenever (s)he is no longer a member of such body or at the completion of his/her Class IV term, whichever occurs first.
E. 
Members of the Planning Board holding office on the effective date of this chapter shall continue in office until completion of their terms as provided by law.
F. 
The term of a Class IV member appointed after the effective date hereof shall be for a period of four years.
G. 
All terms shall commence on January 1 of the year in which the appointment is made.
A. 
The position of Alternate Planning Board member is hereby established. The Mayor shall appoint four alternate Planning Board members, who shall be Borough residents. Alternate members shall meet the qualifications for Class IV members. Alternate members shall be designated at the time of appointment by the Mayor as "Alternate No. 1," "Alternate No. 2, "Alternate No. 3" and "Alternate No. 4." The terms of the alternate members shall be for two years, except that the terms of the alternate members shall be such that the term of not more than two alternate members shall expire in any one year; provided, however, that in no instance shall the terms of the alternate members first appointed exceed two years.
B. 
Alternate members may participate in all matters but may not vote except in the absence or disqualification of a regular member of any class. In the event that a choice must be made as to which alternate member is to vote, Alternate No. 1 shall vote before Alternate No. 2, Alternate No. 2 shall vote before Alternate No: 3 and Alternate No. 3 shall vote before Alternate No. 4.
Vacancies occurring otherwise than by expiration of term, in any class, shall be filled by appointment, as above provided, for the unexpired term.
The Planning Board shall elect a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson from the members of Class IV and select a secretary who may be either a member of the Planning Board or a municipal employee designated by it.
There is hereby created the office of Planning Board Attorney. The Planning Board may annually appoint, fix the compensation of or agree upon the rate of compensation of the Planning Board Attorney, who shall be an attorney other than the Municipal Attorney.
The Planning Board may also employ or contract for the services of experts and other staff and services as it may deem necessary. The Board shall not exceed, however, exclusive of gifts or grants, the amount appropriated by the Borough Council for its use.
The Planning Board shall be authorized to adopt bylaws governing its procedures. It shall also have the following powers and duties:
A. 
To make and adopt, and from time to time amend, a Master Plan for the physical development of the Borough, including any areas outside its boundaries, which, in the Board's judgment, bear essential relation to the planning of the Borough.
B. 
To administer the provisions of Chapter 218, Subdivision of Land, of this Code.
C. 
To participate in the preparation and review of programs or plans required by state or federal law or regulations.
D. 
To assemble data on a continuing basis as part of a continuous planning process.
E. 
To prepare annually a program of municipal capital improvement projected over a term of six years, and amendments thereto, and recommend same to the Council.
F. 
To consider and report to the Council, within 35 days after referral, on any proposed development regulation submitted to it, and to pass upon other matters specifically referred to it by the Council.
G. 
To grant conditional uses in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
H. 
To perform such other advisory duties as are assigned to it by ordinance or resolution of the Council for the aid and assistance of the Council or other agencies or officers.
I. 
To perform such other duties as are assigned to it under Chapter 255, Zoning.
J. 
To possess all such powers and perform duties granted to a Board of Adjustment under the Municipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq., including but not limited to the power to:
(1) 
Hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the appellant that there is error in any order, requirement, decision or refusal wade by an administrative officer based on or made in the enforcement of Chapter 255, Zoning.
(2) 
Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the Zoning Map or Chapter 255, Zoning, or for decisions upon other special questions upon which such Board is authorized to pass by any Zoning or Official Map Ordinance;
(3) 
Variances.
(a) 
Where, by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property, or by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or physical features uniquely affecting a specific piece of property, or by reason of an extraordinary and exceptional situation uniquely affecting a specific piece of property or the structures lawfully existing thereon, the strict application of any regulation in Chapter 255, Zoning, would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to, or exceptional and undue hardship upon, the developer of such property, grant, upon an application or an appeal relating to such property, a variance from such strict application of such regulation so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship.
(b) 
Where, in an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property, the purposes of this act would be advanced by a deviation from requirements of Chapter 255, Zoning, and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment, grant a variance to allow departure from said regulations; provided, however, that the fact that a proposed use is an inherently beneficial use shall not be dispositive of a decision on a variance under this subsection and provided that no variance from those departures enumerated in Subsection J(4) of this section shall be granted under this subsection.
(4) 
In particular cases for special reasons, grant a variance to allow departure from regulations pursuant to Chapter 255, Zoning, to permit a use or principal structure in a district restricted against such use or principal structure; an expansion of a nonconforming use; deviation from a specification or standard pertaining solely to a conditional use; an increase in the permitted floor area ratio, if regulated by Chapter 255, Zoning; an increase in the permitted density except as applied to the required lot area for a lot or lots for detached one- or two-dwelling-unit buildings, which lot or lots are either an isolated undersized lot or lots resulting from a minor subdivision; or a height of a principal structure which exceeds by 10 feet or 10% the maximum height permitted in the district for a principal structure. A variance under this subsection shall be granted only by affirmative vote of at least five members, but the Class I and the Class III members of the Planning Board shall not participate in applications for development which involve this type of relief.
(5) 
If an application for development requests one or more variances but not a variance for a purpose enumerated in Subsection J(4) of this section, the decision on the requested variance or variances shall be rendered under Subsection J(3) of this section.
(6) 
No variance or other relief may be granted, including a variance or other relief involving an inherently beneficial use, without a showing that such variance or other relief can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and will not substantially impair the intent and the purpose of the zone plan and Chapter 255, Zoning.
K. 
To grant variances from the requirements of law that no permit shall be issued for any building or structure in the bed of any street, public drainageway, flood control basin or public area reserved on the Official Map. Such variances may be approved only if:
(1) 
Such variance is approved by a majority of the full authorized membership of the Board.
(2) 
Unless a variance is granted, the parcel or parcels of land on which the mapped street, drainageway, flood control basin or reserved area is located cannot yield a reasonable return to the owner.
(3) 
The variance required shall cause the least practicable increase in the cost of opening the street or shall tend to cause the least change in the Official Map.
(4) 
The Board shall impose such reasonable requirements as conditions for granting such variance as will promote the health, morals, safety and general welfare of the public.
L. 
To grant variances from the requirements of law that no permit for the erection of any building or structure be issued unless the lot abuts a street giving access to the proposed building or structure. Such a variance shall be granted only if the enforcement of such requirements of law would entail practical difficulties or undue hardship or where the circumstances of the case do not require the building or structure to adhere to conditions that shall provide adequate access for firefighting equipment, ambulances and other emergency vehicles necessary for the protection of health and safety and that shall protect any future street layout shown on the Official Map or on a general circulation plan element of the Master Plan.
The Board shall adopt such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with any ordinance, as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions and purposes of this chapter, Chapter 255, Zoning, or Chapter 218, Subdivision of Land.
The Mayor may appoint one or more persons as a Citizens' Advisory Committee to assist or collaborate with the Planning Board in its duties, but such person or persons shall have no power to vote or take other action required by the Planning Board. Such person or persons shall serve at the pleasure of the Mayor.