[Amended 10-31-1978; 3-25-1980; 8-26-1986; 3-31-1992; 10-26-2021 by Ord. No. 2021-12]
A. There is hereby established pursuant to P.L. 1975,
c. 291, in the Township of Hampton a Planning Board of nine members,
consisting of the following four classes:
(2) Class II: one of the officials of the municipality
other than a member of the governing body, to be appointed by the
Mayor, provided that, if there is an Environmental Commission, the
member of the Environmental Commission who is also a member of the
Planning Board as required by N.J.S.A. 40:56A-1 shall be deemed to
be the Class II Planning Board member if there is a member of the
Board of Education among the Class IV members.
(3) Class III: a member of the governing body, to be appointed
by it.
(4) Class IV: six other citizens of the township, to be
appointed by the Mayor. The members of Class IV shall hold no other
municipal office, except that one 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 N.J.S.A. 40:56A-1 shall
be a Class IV member unless there shall be among the Class IV members
a member of the Board of Education, in which case, the member of the
Environmental Commission shall be deemed to be a Class II member.
For the purpose of this section, membership on a municipal board or
commission whose function is advisory in nature, and the establishment
of which is discretionary and not required by statute, shall not be
considered as holding a municipal office.
B. Alternate members.
(1) There may also be not more than four alternate members
appointed to the Planning Board in the same manner as Class IV members,
who shall be designated by the Mayor as “Alternate No. 1,”
“Alternate No. 2,” “Alternate No. 3” and “Alternate
No. 4.”
(2) Alternate members may participate in discussion 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 be chosen first, followed in turn
by Alternate No. 2, then Alternate No. 3 and then Alternate No. 4,
if necessary.
If a vacancy in any class shall occur otherwise
than by expiration of term, it shall be filled by appointment as above
provided for the unexpired term. Any member other than a Class I member,
after a public hearing if he requests one, may be removed by the governing
body for cause.
The Planning Board shall elect a Chairman and
Vice Chairman 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 and 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.
In addition, 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 governing body
for its use.
The Planning Board is authorized to adopt bylaws
governing its procedural operation. 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 township, including any areas
outside its boundaries which in the Board's judgment bear essential
relation to the planning of the township, in accordance with the provisions
of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28. Said Master Plan shall be reexamined every
six years in accordance with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-89.
The next reexamination shall be completed by August 1, 1988, and thereafter
a reexamination shall be completed at least once every six years from
the previous reexamination. The absence of the adoption by the Planning
Board of a reexamination report pursuant to statute shall constitute
a rebuttable presumption that the municipal development regulations
are no longer reasonable.
[Amended 8-26-1986]
B. To administer the provisions of the Land Subdivision
Ordinance and Site Plan Review Ordinance of the township in accordance
with the provisions of said ordinances and the Municipal Land Use
Law of 1975 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.).
C. To participate in the preparation and review of programs
or plans required of the Planning Board by state or federal law or
regulations.
D. To assemble data on a continuing basis as part of
a continuous planning process.
E. To annually prepare a program of municipal capital
improvement projects projected over a term of six years, and amendments
thereto, and recommend same to the governing body.
F. To consider and make a report to the governing body
within 35 days after referral as to any proposed development regulation
submitted to it pursuant to the provisions of Subsection a of N.J.S.A.
40:55D-26, which report shall identify any provisions in the proposed
development regulation, revision or amendment, which are inconsistent
with the Master Plan, and shall include recommendations concerning
these inconsistencies and any other matters the Board deems appropriate
and also pass upon other matters specifically referred to the Planning
Board by the governing body pursuant to the provisions of Subsection
b of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-26.
[Amended 8-26-1986]
G. To hear applications for conditional uses and in proper
cases to approve conditional use permits in accordance with provisions
of the Zoning Chapter pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-67.
[Added 11-27-1984]
H. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-25(c), to exercise, to
the same extent and subject to the same restrictions, all powers of
a Zoning Board of Adjustment as listed and provided under the Municipal
Land Use Law including but not limited to the powers to:
[Added 3-25-1980; amended 11-27-1984; 10-26-2021 by Ord. No. 2021-12]
(1) 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 officer based on or made in the
enforcement of the Zoning Chapter.
(2) Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the
Map or Zoning Chapter or for decisions upon other special questions
upon which the Board is authorized to pass by provisions in the Zoning
Chapter.
(3) 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 pursuant
to the Zoning Chapter 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 the strict application of such regulation
so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship; or where in an application
or appeal relating to a specific piece of property the purposes of
this chapter would be advanced by a deviation from the Zoning Chapter
requirements and the benefits of the deviation would substantially
outweigh any detriment, grant a variance to allow departure from such
regulations of the Zoning Chapter; provided, however, that no variance
from those departures enumerated in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70d shall be granted
under this subsection.
(4) In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance to allow departure from regulations set forth in the Zoning Chapter 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; or 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, in which event applications would be made pursuant to Subsection
H(3) above. A variance under this subsection shall be granted only by affirmative vote of at least five members of the Board.
(5) 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 Chapter. In respect
of any airport hazard areas delineated under the Air Safety and Hazardous
Zoning Act of 1983, 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 Board shall act.
(6) In the
event an application requires relief under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(d),
the Class I and Class III members of the Planning Board shall not
participate in the consideration thereof and said application shall
be considered by no more than seven members/alternates.
I. 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.
[Added 3-25-1980; amended 11-27-1984]
J. To consider and make a report within 45 days of its
receipt upon any petition for annexation submitted to the governing
body of the municipality and referred to the Planning Board pursuant
to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40A:7-12.
[Added 8-26-1986]
K. To review a petition for inclusion of a parcel in
a municipality-approved farmland preservation program pursuant to
Subdivision c of N.J.S.A. 4:1C-21.
[Added 8-26-1986]
L. Direct issuance
of a permit pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-34 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.
[Added 10-26-2021 by Ord. No. 2021-12]
M. Direct issuance
of a permit pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-36 for a building or structure
not related to a street.
[Added 10-26-2021 by Ord. No. 2021-12]
[Amended 9-25-1979; 3-25-1980]
A. Applications for development within the jurisdiction
of the Planning Board pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1
et seq. shall be filed with the Township Clerk. A quorum of the Planning
Board is hereby designated as the administrative officer pursuant
to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-3. The applicant shall file,
at least 28 days before the date of the monthly meeting of the Board,
three copies of either a sketch plat, an application for minor subdivision
approval; an application for major subdivision approval or an application
for site plan review, conditional use approval or planned development.
At the time of the filing of the application, the applicant shall
also file 12 copies of any proposed subdivision maps and all plot
plans, maps or other paper required by virtue of any provision of
this chapter or any rule of the Planning Board. The applicant shall
obtain all necessary forms from the Secretary of the Planning Board.
The Secretary of the Board shall inform the applicant of the steps
to be taken to initiate applications and of the regular meeting dates
of the Board.
[Amended 10-13-1998 by Ord. No. 98-11]
B. After the initial submission of an original application
for development with maps and supporting documents, in the event that
the applicant desires or is required to prepare revisions to the original
submissions and/or submit additional data or documentation in support
thereof, the same shall be submitted to the clerk of the reviewing
board having jurisdiction thereof at least 10 working days (excluding
Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays) prior to the meeting of the
reviewing board having jurisdiction, at which consideration or review
of the application is expected. In the event that submissions are
not made in accordance with this requirement, the revisions shall
not be reviewed by the board's engineer, nor considered by the reviewing
board having jurisdiction thereof until the second meeting following
the late submission.
[Added 7-25-1989]
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 of the Board. Such person or
persons shall serve at the pleasure of the Mayor.
Whenever the Environmental Commission has prepared
and submitted to the Planning Board an index of the natural resources
of the municipality, the Planning Board shall make available to the
Environmental Commission an informational copy of every application
for development to the Planning Board. Failure of the Planning Board
to make such informational copy available to the Environmental Commission
shall not invalidate any hearing or proceeding.
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.
[Added 11-27-1984]
Applications for development within the jurisdiction of the Planning Board shall be reviewed for completeness in accordance with the provisions of §
15-30.1 of this chapter.
[Added 10-26-2021 by Ord. No. 2021-12]
The Planning Board shall, at least once a year, review its decisions
on applications and appeals for variances and prepare and adopt by
resolution a report on its findings on Zoning Ordinance provisions
which are the subject of variance requests and its recommendations
for Zoning Ordinance amendment or revision, if any. The Planning Board
shall send copies of the report and resolution to the governing body.