[Amended 5-1-1979 by Ord. No. 0-79-7; 6-9-1980 by Ord. No. 0-80-6]
A. 
A Zoning Board of Adjustment is hereby created consisting of seven regular members and two alternate members, each of whom shall be appointed by the governing body. The members of the heretofore-created Zoning Board of Adjustment are hereby reappointed to serve their respective terms. The terms of all new members appointed under this chapter shall be so determined that to the greatest practicable extent the expiration of such terms shall be distributed, in the case of regular members, evenly over the first four years after their appointments and, in the case of alternate members, evenly over the first two years after their appointments; provided, however, that the initial term of no regular member shall exceed four years, and that the initial term of no alternate member shall exceed two years. Thereafter, the term of each regular member shall be four years, and the term of each alternate member shall be two years.
B. 
Alternate members shall be designated at the time of their appointment as "Alternate No. 1" and "Alternate No. 2." Alternate members may participate in discussions of the proceedings, but may not vote, except in the absence or disqualification of a regular member. 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 vote.
C. 
No member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall hold an elective office or position under the municipality.
D. 
Any vacancy on said Board occurring other than by expiration of term shall be filled by appointment by the governing body of the municipality to serve for the unexpired term of the member whose term shall become vacant. A member may be removed by the governing body for cause, but only after public hearing and other requested procedural due process protection.
E. 
Yearly, the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall organize by selecting from among its regular members a Chairman and a Vice Chairman. The Board shall also select a Secretary who may or may not be a member of the Board or a municipal employee.
F. 
The governing body shall make provisions in its budget and appropriate funds for the expenses of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
G. 
The office of Zoning Board of Adjustment Attorney is hereby created. The Board of Adjustment may annually appoint to such office and fix the compensation or the rate of compensation of an attorney at law of New Jersey other than the Municipal Attorney.
H. 
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, however, 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 hereby laid down 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 shall in all cases follow the provisions applicable to it in said P.L. 1975, c. 291,[1] 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.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 40:50D-1 et seq.
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 65 days prescribed by the statute by filing a notice of appeal with the officer from whom the appeal is taken, together with 14 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.
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. Fourteen 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 case, proceedings shall not be stayed otherwise than by a restraining order which may be granted 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 P.L. 1975, c. 291,[1] 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 order, 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.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 seq.
Any variance front the terms of any ordinance 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 said variance or unless such permitted use has actually been commenced within 12 months 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 proceedings.
[Amended 6-9-1980 by Ord. No. 0-80-6; 9-24-1984 by Ord. No. 0-84-14[1]]
A. 
The Board of Adjustment shall have the power 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 any municipal official based on or made in the enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 101, Zoning.
(2) 
Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the Zoning Map or ordinance or for decisions upon other special questions upon which such Board is authorized to pass by any zoning or official map ordinance.
(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 zoning regulation 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 such strict application of such regulation so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship; or wherein an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property, the purposes of this chapter set forth in section § 101-2B and the Municipal Land Use and Development Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.) would be advanced by deviation from the Zoning Ordinance requirements and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment, grant a variance to allow the departure from zoning regulations; provided, however, that no variance from those departures enumerated in Subsection A(4) 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 § 20-7G.
(4) 
Grant a variance to allow departure from zoning regulations in particular cases and for special reasons 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 pertaining solely to a conditional use;
(d) 
An increase in the permitted floor area ratio as defined in § 101-1; or
(e) 
An increase in the permitted density as defined in § 101-1 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 the affirmative vote of at least five members.
B. 
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 purpose of the zone plan and Zoning Ordinance.
[1]
Editor's Note: Section 18 of this ordinance provided as follows: "Any application for development submitted before July 1, 1984, to a municipal agency pursuant to lawful authority may be continued at the option of the applicant, and the municipal agency shall have every power it possessed before July 1, 1984, in regard to any such application."
A. 
The Zoning Board of Adjustment shall, in addition to the powers specified in § 20-21 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 Zoning Board of Adjustment shall have the power to grant, to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions as the Planning Board, subdivision, site plan or conditional use approval whenever the proposed development requires approval by the Zoning Board of Adjustment of a variance pursuant to this chapter. The developer may elect to submit a subsequent application for any required approval of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use. The separate approval of the variance shall be conditioned upon the grant of all required subsequent approvals by the Zoning Board of Adjustment. No such subsequent approval shall be granted unless such approval can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantial impairment of the intent and purpose of the zone plan and the zoning provisions of this chapter. The number of votes of Board members required to grant any such subsequent approval shall be as otherwise provided in this chapter for the approval in question, and the special vote pursuant to this chapter shall not be required.
[Amended 6-9-1980 by Ord. No. 0-80-6]
C. 
Whenever the proposed development requires approval of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use, but not a use variance, the Planning Board, in lieu of the Board of Adjustment and to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions as such Board, shall receive, review and act upon applications for hardship variances and applications for special permits. The developer may elect to submit a separate application requesting approval of the hardship variance or special permit and subsequent application for any required approval of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use. The separate approval of the hardship variance or special permit shall be conditioned upon grant of all required subsequent approvals by the Planning Board. No such subsequent approval shall be granted unless the approval can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantial impairment of the intent and purpose of the zone plan and Zoning Ordinance.
[Added 9-24-1984 by Ord. No. 0-84-14[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: Section 18 of this ordinance provided as follows: "Any application or development submitted before July 1, 1994, to a municipal agency pursuant to lawful authority may be continued at the option of the applicant, and the municipal agency shall have every power it possessed before July 1, 1984, in regard to any such application."
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 officer or after 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.