Planners may slow process
Planner recommends board act Tuesday on
re-examination report
UPPER FREEHOLD — Procedures for the next Planning Board meeting was a topic at the March 14 meeting.
Township Planner Richard Coppola informed the board that the periodic re-examination report for the master plan is subject to statutory requirements of the Municipal Land Use Law. He added that this requirement did not mean specific recommendations had to be passed.
Coppola suggested that the Planning Board pass the re-examination report as a new document at next Tuesday’s meeting. Then, according to Coppola, a list of recommendations for the master plan could be made to serve as an outline for substantive changes that have been discussed.
"Once you have the re-examination report, you’re not in a rush [for the master plan]," said Coppola. After the Planning Board agrees it has completed its periodic re-examination report, it could make further changes to sections of the master plan.
"Public review is not necessary for the re-examination report," commented Board Attorney Frank Armenante. "The public should know we really accommodated them and let them participate."
He suggested rules for the next hearing, which included a limit of five minutes per speaker for a member of a the public with up to half an hour for expert witnesses.
"If you can’t enforce rules, your only choice is to close down the meeting," he said.
He agreed that once the re-examination report is complete, recommendations for the master plan could be worked on for a period of several years. "The main thing is to comply [with the re-examination report]," he said.
Board member and Township Commit-teeman William Miscoski expressed frustration with the master plan hearings.
"We haven’t discussed anything but two- and four-acre zoning," he said. "We can’t discuss it with each other [the Planning Board]. I’m tired of hearing public input; I would like to hear what this board has to say. No one gets to talk on this board, and I’d like to know what my fellow board members think and feel."
He added, "I want the point of rules [to be], whatever we are discussing, that’s what we discuss. We don’t get off track."