Sunday, June 24, 2007
By JAMES YOO and JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITERS
FAST FACTS
• Planning boards handle master plan updates, proposed municipal planning codes and large development applications.
• Zoning boards of adjustment can hear larger projects that need variances, but usually hear smaller cases such as home additions and side-yard variances. Variances are exemptions to local zoning rules.
The state's Highlands preservation campaign is leaving some local planning boards with little to do.
So some Highlands towns are merging or considering merging their planning and zoning boards.
With development curtailed because most of the remaining open space is in the Highlands preservation area, Bloomingdale merged its planning and zoning boards in December. And Wanaque is considering doing the same.
In Kinnelon, the Planning Board has met just three times this year and has reviewed no new applications since 2004.
A big reason for merging the boards is to cut costs of paying lawyers and other professionals on both boards.
Bloomingdale Mayor William Steenstra said the council decided to merge the boards when it became clear that fewer applications were coming in. "So why not save the money?" he said.
Based on last year's budget, Bloomingdale saved about $10,000, said Donna Mollineaux, the borough's chief financial officer.
A big chunk of the borough is in Norvin Green State Forest and the rest is mostly built out. Other than a disputed parcel on Federal Hill where a developer won a court order to construct 360 town houses, the only large buildable site is the stone quarry next to Route 287 that may not be available for decades, Steenstra noted.
Wanaque is considering a merger for an additional reason: complaints about lengthy procedures at the Board of Adjustment -- the formal term for zoning board.
Arguing for merging the boards, Wanaque Councilman Joseph Fiorito said at a recent Borough Council meeting that a "merger will save taxpayers money by paying only one lawyer and one engineer and streamlining the process by having residents and business owners go before one board."
The Kinnelon Planning Board's first meeting this year was the reorganization meeting; the next was to review a borough ordinance to comply with the state's new storm-water regulations and the last was to hear a new application that was withdrawn at the last moment.
Councilman J. Eric Nederfield said a merger depends on what happens with the Highlands draft regional master plan. That plan was designed to preserve water-generating lands in seven counties from Bergen to Hunterdon. It also will determine where development can take place, subject to state regulations. "Really I think [it's] going to make our decision," Nederfield said.
Of merging the two boards, he said, "We don't have it under consideration, but it's certainly a possibility."
West Milford is also waiting on the plan, said Council President Joseph Smolinski, although a merger is being considered. The township, the largest of the North Jersey Highlands communities, with 80 square miles and about 28,000 residents, has 700 small lots -- most smaller than an acre -- where single-family homes could potentially be built, he said. But the council won't know if that's possible until the Highlands draft regional master plan is complete, he said.
Smolinski added that he opposes merging the boards.Ringwood Mayor Joanne Atlas also questions the idea of merging her town's planning and zoning boards even though the borough is completely within the Highlands preservation area.
"I think at this particular time it's not a good idea, and I don't believe it would save any money," she said.
Atlas said there may not be enough work for two boards, but there's too much for one. She added that the Planning Board is currently working on updating the borough's master plan.
"Admittedly, there aren't many projects that come before the Planning Board. On the other hand, the Board of Adjustment has a lot of applications and they are working very, very hard," she said.
Atlas said it would be a lot to ask of the volunteers to handle the functions of both boards. That's not to say a merger could not happen.
"But if the time comes that the Planning Board is so dormant and has so little to do, then I think then it might be a good thing to do," Atlas said.
E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com and barry@northjersey.comCopyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.