Editor’s Note: This ordinance also repealed former Art.
19-700, Zoning Board of Adjustment and Planning Board, as amended;
and provided an effective date of 5-9-2012.
A Land Use Board is hereby established, consisting of nine members
who shall serve for their respective terms pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-23.
The nine members of the Land Use Board shall consist of the following
classes:
Class IV: six other citizens of the municipality who shall be appointed
by the Mayor. Said members shall not hold any other municipal office,
position or employment, except that one member may be a member of
the Historic Preservation Commission and one member may be a member
of the Board of Education. If the municipality has an Environmental
Commission, a member of the Environmental Commission shall be a member
of the Land Use Board as required by § 1 of P.L. 1968, c.
245 (N.J.S.A. 40:56A-1), who shall be a member of Class IV of the
Land Use Board unless there are among the Class IV or alternate members
of the Land Use Board a member of the Historic Preservation Commission
and a member of the Board of Education, in which case said Environmental
Commission member shall be the Class II member of the Land Use Board.
There shall be four alternate members appointed to the Land Use Board
as Class IV members. The Mayor shall appoint said alternate members,
and they shall meet the qualification of Class IV members as hereinafter
provided. Said alternate members shall be designated at the time of
their appointment by the Mayor as "Alternate No. 1," "Alternate No.
2," "Alternate No. 3," and "Alternate No. 4." Alternate members of
Class IV shall serve for a term of two years, except that the terms
of the alternate members shall be such that the term of not more than
one alternate member shall expire in any one year; provided, however,
that the term of not more than two alternate members shall expire
in any one year; and provided further that in no instance shall the
terms of the alternate members first appointed exceed two years.
Said alternate members may participate in discussions of the proceedings
but may not vote except in the absence or disqualification of a regular
member of any class. A vote shall not be delayed in order that a regular
member may vote instead of an alternate member. In the event that
a choice must be made as to which alternate member is to vote, Alternate
No. 1 shall vote.
The Land Use Board shall adopt such rules and regulations as may
be necessary to carry into effect the provisions and purposes of this
chapter. 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:67-1 et seq.) shall apply. It shall also
have the following powers and duties:
To make and adopt and from time to time amend a Master Plan for the
physical development of the municipality, including any areas outside
its boundaries which, in the Board's judgment, bear essential relation
to the planning of the municipality, in accordance with the provisions
of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28.
To administer the provisions of the Land Subdivision Ordinance and
Site Plan Review Ordinance of the municipality in accordance with
the provisions of said ordinances and N.J.S.A. 40:55D-37 et seq.
To prepare a program of municipal capital improvement projects projected
over a term of six years, and amendments thereto, and recommend the
same to the governing body in accordance with the provisions of N.J.S.A.
40:55D-29 et seq.
To consider and make report to the governing body, within 35 days
after referral, as to any proposed development regulations submitted
to it pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-26a and also pass
upon other matters specifically referred to the Land Use Board by
the governing body pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55-D26b.
When reviewing applications for approval of subdivision plats, site
plans or conditional uses, to grant variances and related relief in
accordance with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-60 et seq.
To perform such other advisory duties as are assigned to it by ordinance
or resolution of the governing body for the aid and assistance of
the governing body or other agencies or officers.
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.
Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the Zoning Map
or Zoning Ordinance or for decisions upon other special questions
upon which such Board is authorized by the Zoning Ordinance to pass.
To grant variance relief pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70 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 the
Zoning Ordinance would result in peculiar and exceptional practical
difficulties to or exceptional and undue hardship upon the developer
of such.
In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance
to allow departure from the Zoning Regulations 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 pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-67 pertaining solely to a
conditional use; an increase in the permitted floor area ratio as
defined in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-4; an increase in the permitted density
as defined in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-4, 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
of the Board.
No variance or other relief may be granted under the terms 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 the purpose of the Zone Plan and Zoning Ordinance.
In respect of any airport hazard areas delineated under the Air Safety
and Hazardous Zoning Act of 1983, P.L. 1983, c. 260 (N.J.S.A. 6:1-80
et seq.), no variance or other relief may be granted under the terms
of this section permitting the creation or establishment of a nonconforming
use which would be prohibited under the standards promulgated pursuant
to that act, except upon issuance of a permit by the Commissioner
of Transportation. An application under this section may be referred
to any appropriate person or agency for its report, provided that
such reference shall not extend the period of time within which the
Land Use Board shall act.