[Amended 2-8-1977 by Ord. No. 283-B-77]
A. 
A Zoning Board is hereby established pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-69, consisting of seven residents of the Township of Brick appointed by a majority vote of the full membership of the Township Council to serve for terms of four years from July 1 of the year of their appointment. The terms of the members first appointed shall be so determined that, to the greatest practicable extent, the expiration of such terms shall be distributed evenly over the first four years after their appointment, provided that the initial term of no member shall exceed four years. Thereafter, the term of each member shall be for four years. Nothing in this chapter shall, however, be construed to affect the terms of any present members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, all of whom shall continue in office until the completion of the terms for which they were appointed.
B. 
No member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment may hold any elective office or position under the municipality.
C. 
A vacancy occurring otherwise than by expiration of term shall be filled for the unexpired term only.
D. 
The Township Council may, by a majority vote of its full membership, appoint two alternate members to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Alternate members shall be designated by the Chairman as "Alternate No. 1" and "Alternate No. 2" and serve in rotation during the absence or disqualification of any regular member or members. The term of each alternate member shall be two years from the date of his appointment.
[Added 9-11-1979 by Ord. No. 283-C-79]
The Board of Adjustment shall elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman from its members and shall also select a Secretary, who may be either a Board member or another municipal employee.
There is hereby created the office of Attorney to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The Zoning Board of Adjustment may actually appoint and fix the compensation of or agree upon the rate of compensation of the Zoning Board of Adjustment Attorney, who shall be an attorney other than the Municipal Attorney.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment may also employ or contract 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 governing body 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.
A. 
The powers of the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall be in accordance with N.J.S.A. 40:55D-69 et seq., and amendments and supplements thereto, and with the provisions of this chapter.
B. 
It is further the intent of this chapter to confer upon the Zoning Board of Adjustment as full and complete powers as may lawfully be conferred upon such Board, including, not by way of limitation, the authority, in connection with any case, action or proceeding before the Board, to interpret and construe the provisions of this chapter or any term, clause, sentence or word hereof and the Zoning Map, in accordance with the general rules of construction, applicable to legislative enactments.
C. 
The Board may, in appropriate cases and subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards, grant variances from the terms of this chapter in accordance with the general or specific rules contained herein and with the general rules hereby laid down so that equity shall be done in cases where the strict construction of the provisions of this chapter would work undue hardship. The powers and duties of the Board having been delegated to and imposed upon it by statute, the Board shall in all cases follow the provisions applicable to it in the Municipal Land Use Act of 1975 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.) or subsequent statutes in such case made and provided, and it shall from time to time furnish to any person requesting the same a copy of its rules and information as to how appeals or applications may properly be filed with the Board for its decision thereon.
A. 
Appeals to the Board of Adjustment may be taken by any person aggrieved or by an officer, department, board or bureau of the municipality affected by any decision of the administrative officer. Each appeal shall be taken within the 20 days prescribed by N.J.S.A. 40:55D-72 by filing a notice of appeal with the officer from whom the appeal was taken, together with three copies of said notice with the Secretary of the Board of Adjustment. Said notice of appeal shall specify the grounds for said appeal. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the Board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken.
[Amended 3-14-1989 by Ord. No. 666-89]
B. 
Applications addressed to the original jurisdiction of the Board of Adjustment without prior application to an administrative officer shall be filed with the Secretary of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Three copies of the application shall be filed. At the time of filing the appeal or application, but in no event less than 10 days prior to the date set for hearing, the applicant shall also file all plot plans, maps or other papers required by virtue of any provision of this chapter or any rule of the Board of Adjustment. The applicant shall obtain all necessary forms from the Secretary of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The Secretary of the Board shall inform the applicant of the steps to be taken to initiate proceedings and of the regular meeting dates of the Board.
C. 
An appeal stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action in respect of which the decision appealed from was made, unless the officer from whom the appeal is taken certifies to the Board of Adjustment, after the notice of appeal shall have been filed with him, that, by reason of facts stated in the certificate, a stay would, in his opinion, cause imminent peril to life or property. In such cases, proceedings shall not be stayed otherwise than by a restraining order, which may be granted by the Board of Adjustment or by the Superior Court of New Jersey on application or notice to the officer from whom the appeal is taken and on due cause shown.
In exercising the above-mentioned power, 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.
[Amended 4-10-2007 by Ord. No. 10-07]
Any variance from the terms of this chapter hereafter granted by the Board of Adjustment after April 1, 2005, permitting the erection or alteration of any structure or structures shall expire by limitation unless such construction or alteration shall have been actually commenced on each and every structure permitted by said variance within two years from the date of entry 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 governing body or to a court of competent jurisdiction until the termination in any manner of such appeal or proceeding. Any construction commenced within the two-year period provided for in this section shall be completed within two years of the commencement of such construction. Any variance from the terms of this chapter hereafter granted by the Board of Adjustment after April 1, 2005, permitting a specified use of any premises shall expire by limitation unless such permitted use has actually commenced within four years 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 governing body or to a court of competent jurisdiction until the termination in any manner of such appeal or proceeding.
A. 
The Board of Adjustment shall have such powers as are granted by law to:
(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 official or agency based on or made in the enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 245, Land Use.
(2) 
Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the map or Zoning Ordinance or for decisions upon other special questions upon which such Board is authorized by the Zoning Ordinance to pass.
(3) 
Where, by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property or by reason or 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 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; where, in an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property, the purposes of this Act[2] would be advanced by a deviation from the Zoning Ordinance requirements and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment, grant a variance to allow departure from the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance; provided, however, that no variance from those departures enumerated in Subsection A(4) 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 N.J.S.A. 40:55D-60a.
[Amended 11-27-1984 by Ord. No. 283-G-84]
[2]
Editor's Note: "This Act" refers to the Municipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.
(4) 
In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance to allow departure from regulations of the Zoning Ordinance to permit a use or principal structure in a district restricted against such use or principal structure, an expansion of a nonconforming use, deviations 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. A variance under this subsection shall be granted only by affirmative vote of at least five members of the Board.
[Amended 11-27-1984 by Ord. No. 283-G-84]
B. 
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 zoning plan and Zoning Ordinance.[3] Any application under any subsection of 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.
[Amended 11-27-1984 by Ord. No. 283-G-84]
[3]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 245, Land Use.
A. 
The Zoning Board of Adjustment shall, in addition to the powers specified in § 250-22 of this article, have power given by law to:
(1) 
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.
(2) 
Direct issuance of a permit, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-36, for a building or structure not related to a street.
B. 
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 N.J.S.A. 40:55D-37 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 § 250-22A(4) of this chapter.
A. 
The Board of Adjustment shall render its decision not later than 120 days after the date an appeal is taken from the decision of an administrative office or the submission of a complete application for development to the Board pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70b.
B. 
Failure of the Board to render a decision within such one-hundred-twenty-day period or within such further time as may be consented to by the applicant shall constitute a decision favorable to the applicant.
All actions of the Board of Adjustment shall be taken in accordance with the requirements as established in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9a. When any hearing before the Board of Adjustment shall carry over two or more meetings, a member of the Board who was absent for one or more of the meetings shall be eligible to vote on the matter upon which the hearing was conducted, notwithstanding his absence from one or more of the meetings; provided, however, that such Board member has available to him a transcript or recording of the meeting from which he was absent and certifies, in writing, to the Board that he has read such transcript or listened to such recording.