A. 
Prior to the subdivision or resubdivision of land, to the issuance of an occupancy, conditional use or construction permit for a development, or to the granting of any variance from Part 6, Zoning, an application for subdivision, site plan or planned development review, as the case may be, shall be submitted to and approved by resolution of the approving authority in accordance with the requirements of this Part 5. Site plan approval shall be required for any new building, any addition to an existing building, any change in use of an existing building, any off-street parking area or alteration of said parking area and any other improvement involving land disturbance, except that subdivisions or individual lot applications for detached one- and two-family dwelling unit buildings shall be exempt from site plan review and approval and except that any Borough-owned property shall also be exempt from site plan review and approval.
[Amended 5-10-2016 by Ord. No. 2016-07]
B. 
The Board, in consultation with the Borough Engineer and any other agency or person as directed by the approving authority for their review and action, may exempt from site plan approval any application if the proposed development secured previous site plan approval under the terms of this section; involves normal maintenance or replacement, such as a new roof, painting, new siding or similar activity; or does not affect existing circulation, drainage, building arrangements, landscaping, buffering, lighting and other considerations of site plan review. The Board may require the submission of such information as will make it possible to determine whether or not such exemption should be granted.
C. 
In the event that the subdivision or site plan application requires action by the Planning Board as provided in this chapter, said application shall be submitted to and processed by said Board.
[Amended 7-26-2011 by Ord. No. 11-07; 10-23-2012 by Ord. No. 12-14]
D. 
Each application for approval shall be submitted by the applicant to the County Planning Board for review or approval, and the municipal approving authority shall condition any approval that it grants upon timely receipt of a favorable report on the application by the County Planning Board or approval by the County Planning Board by its failure to report within the required time period.
E. 
Whenever the Environmental Commission has prepared and submitted to the Planning Board an index of the natural resources of the municipality, the Board shall make available to the Environmental Commission an informational copy of every application for development to the Board. Failure of the Board to make such informational copy available to the Environmental Commission shall not invalidate any hearing or proceeding.
A. 
An application under this Part 5 shall contain any and all data and material required under the appropriate section below and indicated on the checklist required to determine completeness of an application. Said application shall be filed with the administrative officer and include 10 copies of the completed application form and appropriate checklist, 20 copies of all plats, plans, reports and other documents related to the application, a check for the application fee and a check for the escrow fee made out to the Borough of Raritan and certification from the Tax Collector that all taxes and assessments for local improvements are paid to date.
B. 
The administrative officer shall be responsible for distributing the application to the appropriate Board secretary, Board members and professionals, the Police Department, Fire Department and Health Department.
C. 
The applicant shall be responsible for filing the application with the Somerset County Planning Board, the Somerset-Union Soil Conservation Service and any other outside agencies from which approval will be necessary. The applicant shall provide the administrative officer with proof of such filings.
A. 
An application for development shall be complete for the purposes of commencing the applicable time period for action by the Board when so certified by the administrative officer. In the event that the administrative officer does not certify the application to be complete within 45 days of the date of its submission, the application shall be deemed complete upon the expiration of the forty-five-day period for the purpose of commencing the applicable time period, unless the application lacks information indicated on a checklist adopted by ordinance and provided to the applicant and the administrative officer has notified the applicant, in writing, of the deficiencies in the application within 45 days of submission.
B. 
For the purpose of administrating this section, the following checklists for determining the completeness of applications are hereby adopted and made part of this chapter:[1]
(1) 
Checklist No. 1, for determining completeness of an application for minor subdivision approval.
(2) 
Checklist No. 2, for determining completeness of an application for minor site plan approval.
(3) 
Checklist No. 3, for determining completeness of an application for preliminary subdivision approval.
(4) 
Checklist No. 4, for determining completeness of an application for final subdivision approval.
(5) 
Checklist No. 5, for determining completeness of an application for preliminary site plan approval.
(6) 
Checklist No. 6, for determining completeness of an application for final site plan approval.
(7) 
Checklist No. 7 for determining completeness of application for all levels of site plan approval. The completion of the checklist by applicants is mandatory; however, compliance with the checklist items is not a condition of approval.[2]
[Added 6-24-2014 by Ord. No. 2014-03]
[2]
Editor's Note: This checklist concerns green development.
[1]
Editor's Note: Said checklists are included as attachments to this chapter.
C. 
The applicant may request that one or more of the submission requirements be waived, in which event the Board shall grant or deny the request within 45 days.
D. 
Nothing herein shall be construed as diminishing the applicant's obligation to prove in the application process that he is entitled to approval of the application. The Board may subsequently require correction of any information found to be in error and submission of additional information not specified in this chapter or any revisions to the accompanying documents as are reasonably necessary to make an informed decision as to whether the requirements for approval of the application have been met.
E. 
In making a determination regarding additional information, the Board shall consider whether the proposed project has the potential to create negative environmental impacts that should be studied to protect the public's health, safety or welfare. The list of potential impacts from a proposed project which may require independent study include but are not limited to changes in geological or topographical conditions; in noise levels; in air quality; in water quality and hydrology of surface water and/or groundwater; in traffic generation; in light levels and glare; and in levels of toxic and/or hazardous materials and wastes.
F. 
The application shall not be deemed incomplete for lack of any additional information or any revisions to the accompanying documents requested under Subsection C above.
G. 
Once an application has been deemed complete, the administrative officer shall submit it to the Secretary of the Board, with all the supporting documents, within seven days. The application and supporting documents must be received by the Secretary no later than 21 days before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board, for consideration at said meeting.
H. 
An applicant shall not be authorized to publish notice of the application for a scheduled meeting until the application has been certified as complete.
At the request of the developer, the Planning Board shall grant an informal review of a concept plan for a development for which the developer intends to prepare and submit an application for development. This step is optional and is recommended by the Planning Board. The concept plan is designed to enable the Planning Board and the applicant to discuss and evaluate principles and potential problems involved before the applicant has gone to the expense of completing detailed engineering drawings as required for further processing of the development application. The amount of any fees for such an informal review shall be a credit toward fees for review of the application for development. The developer shall not be bound by any concept plan for which review is requested, and the Board shall not be bound by any such review.