The Board of Adjustment shall elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman
from its members and shall also select a Secretary, who may or may
not be a Board member or another Borough employee.
There is hereby created the office of Attorney to the Board
of Adjustment. The Board of Adjustment may annually appoint, fix the
compensation of or agree upon the rate of compensation of the Board
of Adjustment Attorney, who shall be an attorney other than the Borough
Attorney.
The Board of Adjustment may also employ or contact for and fix
the compensation of such experts and other staff and services as it
may deem necessary. The Board shall not authorize expenditures which
exceed, exclusive of gifts or grants, the amount appropriated by the
Borough Council for its use.
The 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:67A-1 et seq., shall apply.
In exercising the above-mentioned powers, the 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 chapter hereafter granted
by the 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 such 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 from the decision of the
Board of Adjustment to the Borough Council or to a court of competent
jurisdiction until the termination in any manner of such appeal or
proceeding.
The Board of Adjustment shall have such powers as are granted
by law to:
A. Appeals. 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 this chapter.
B. Interpretation of map or chapter. Hear and decide requests for interpretation
of the Zoning Map or this chapter or for decisions upon other special
questions upon which such Board is authorized by the chapter to pass.
C. "C" variance.
(1) 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 other extraordinary and exceptional situation
or condition of such piece of property, the strict application of
any regulation in this chapter would result in peculiar and exceptional
practical difficulties to or exceptional and undue hardship upon the
owner 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.
(2) Where, in an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property, the purposes of this chapter, as set forth in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2, would be advanced by a deviation from this chapter's requirements and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment, grant a variance to allow departure from regulations of this chapter, provided, however, that no variance from those departures enumerated in Subsection
D of this section shall be granted under this subsection; and provided, further, 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 has power to review a request for a variance pursuant to §
63-8G of Chapter
63, Land Use Procedures, of this Code.
D. "D" variance.
(1) In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance to
allow departure from regulations of this chapter to permit:
(a)
A use or principal structure in a district restricted against
such use or principal structure;
(b)
An expansion of a nonconforming use;
(c)
Deviation from a specification or standard pursuant to §
585-12 of this chapter pertaining solely to a conditional use;
(d)
An increase in the permitted density as defined in §
585-2 of this chapter, 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 isolated or undersized lot or lots resulting from a minor subdivision; or
(e)
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.
(2) If an application for development requests one or more variances but not a variance for a purpose enumerated in Subsection
D of this section, the decision on the requested variance or variances shall be rendered under Subsection
D of this section.
(3) 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 this chapter.
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 Zoning Board of Adjustment
shall act.
The Board of Adjustment shall, in addition to the powers specified in §
585-32, have power given by law to:
A. Direct issuance of a permit pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-76a(1) for
a building or structure in the bed of a mapped street or public drainageway,
flood control basin or public area reserved on the Official Map.
B. Direct issuance of a permit pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-76a(2) for
a building or structure not related to a street.
C. The Board of Adjustment shall have the power to grant, to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions as the Planning Board, subdivision or site plan approval pursuant to Article 6 of Chapter 291, P.L. 1975, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq., or conditional use approval pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-67, whenever the Board is reviewing an application for approval of a use variance pursuant to §
585-32 of this chapter.
An appeal or application to the Board of Adjustment shall be accompanied by a fee, as provided in Chapter
235, Article 1, Development Application Fee Schedule, payable to the Borough and turned over to the Borough Treasurer by the Secretary of the Board.