No member of the Planning Board or Zoning Board of Adjustment shall act on any matter in which he has either directly or indirectly any personal or financial interest. Whenever any such member shall disqualify himself from acting on a particular matter, he shall not continue to sit with the Board on the hearing of such matter nor participate in any discussion relating thereto.
A. 
Regular. Meetings of both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall be scheduled no less often than once a month and any meetings so scheduled shall be held as scheduled, unless canceled for lack of applications for development to process.
B. 
Special. Special meetings may be provided at the call of the Chairman or on the request of any two Board members, which shall be held on notice to its members and the public in accordance with all applicable legal requirements.
C. 
Quorum. No action shall be taken at any meeting without a quorum being present.
D. 
Voting. All actions shall be taken by majority vote of a quorum, except as otherwise required by N.J.S.A. 40:55D-32, 55D-34, 55D-62, 55D-63, 55D-17e, 55D-26a, 55D-26b and 55D-70d. Failure of a motion to receive the number of votes required to approve an application for development pursuant to the exceptional vote requirements of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-34 or 55D-70d shall be deemed an action denying the application. Nothing herein shall be construed to contravene any act providing for procedure for governing bodies.
E. 
Meetings open to the public. All regular meetings and all special meetings shall be open to the public. Notice of all such meetings shall be given in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Law, Chapter 231 of the Laws of 1975[1] . An executive session for the purpose of discussing and studying any matters to come before either Board shall not be deemed a regular or special meeting in accordance with the provisions.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq.
Minutes of every regular or special meeting shall be kept and shall include the names of the persons appearing and addressing the Board and of the persons appearing by attorney, the action taken by the Board, the findings, if any, made by it and reasons therefor. The minutes shall therefore be made available for public inspections during normal business hours at the office of the Municipal Clerk. Any interested party shall have the right to compel production of the minutes for use as evidence in any legal proceeding concerning the subject matter of such minutes. Such interested party may be charged a fee for reproduction of the minutes for his use as provided for in the rules of the Board.
Fees for application or for the rendering of any service by the Planning Board or Zoning Board of Adjustment or any member of their administrative staffs are adopted as part of the fee schedule adopted by the governing body. Said fee schedule shall be available to the public.
A. 
Rules. The Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment may make rules governing the conduct of hearings before such bodies, which rules shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq. or of this Part 1.
B. 
Oaths. The officer presiding at the hearing or such persons as he may designate shall have the power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of relevant evidence, including witnesses and documents presented by the parties, and the provisions of the County and Municipal Investigations Law, P.L. 1953, c. 1938 (N.J.S.A. 2A:67A-1 et seq.), shall apply.
C. 
Testimony. The testimony of all witnesses relating to an application for development shall be taken under oath or affirmation by the presiding officer, and the right of cross-examination shall be permitted to all interested parties through their attorneys, if represented, or directly, if not represented, subject to the discretion of the presiding officer and to reasonable limitations as to time and number of witnesses.
D. 
Evidence. Technical rules of evidence shall not be applicable to the hearing, but the Board may exclude irrelevant, immaterial or unduly repetitious evidence.
E. 
Records. Each Board shall provide for the verbatim recording of the proceedings by either stenographer, mechanical or electronic means. The Board shall furnish a transcript or duplicate recording in lieu thereof on request to any interested party at his expense.
A. 
General. The Board shall include findings of fact and conclusions based thereon in each decision on any application for development and shall reduce the decision to writing. The Board shall provide the findings and conclusions through:
(1) 
A resolution adopted at a meeting held within the time provided in the Municipal Land Use Law for the action by the Board on the application for development; or
(2) 
A memorializing resolution adopted at a meeting held not later than 45 days after the date of the meeting at which the municipal agency voted to grant or deny approval. Only the members of the municipal agency who voted for the action taken may vote on the memorializing resolution, and the vote of a majority of such members present at the meeting at which the resolution is presented for adoption shall be sufficient to adopt the resolution. An action pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9 (resulting from the failure of a motion to approve an application) shall be memorialized by resolution as provided above, with those members voting against the motion for approval being the members eligible to vote on the memorializing resolution. The vote on any such resolution shall be deemed to be a memorialization of the action of the Board and not to be an action of the Board; however, the date of the adoption of the resolution shall constitute the date of the decision for the purposes of the mailings, filings and publications required by N.J.S.A. 40:55D-10h and 55D-10i. If the Board fails to adopt the resolution or memorializing resolutions as here and above specified, any interested party may apply to the Superior Court in a summary manner for an order compelling the Board to reduce its findings and conclusion to writing within a stated time, and the cost of the application, including attorney's fees, shall be assessed against the municipality.
B. 
Notice of decision. A copy of the decision shall be mailed by the administrative officer within 10 days of the date of decision to the applicant or, if represented, then to his attorney, without separate charge. A copy of the decision shall also be mailed to all persons who have requested it and who have paid the fee prescribed by the Board for such service. A copy of the decision shall also be filed in the office of the Municipal Clerk, who shall make a copy of such filed decision available to any interested party upon payment of a fee calculated in the same manner as those established for copies of other public documents in the municipality.
C. 
Publication of decision. A brief notice of every final decision shall be published in the official newspaper of the municipality. Such publication shall be arranged by the administrative officer. Said notice shall be sent to the official newspaper for publication within 10 days of the date of any such decision. The municipality may make a reasonable charge for the publication.
When any hearing before the Planning Board or 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 meetings from which he was absent and certifies, in writing, to the Board that he has read such transcript or listened to such recording.