on the way
Master plan update
on the way
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer
There may be several changes to South Brunswick’s master plan.
Township planning director Craig Marshall and master plan consultant Peter Tolischus, of Heyer, Gruel Associates, New Brunswick, outlined 12 changes proposed for the plan, which was adopted by the municipality in 2001.
According to Marshall, several of the changes simply represent housekeeping to keep the present master plan current. They include acts such as rezoning a fragment of land to be consistent with the zoning of land around it. One such change would lower a zoning line, which cuts an apartment building in two, in order to include the entire property in one zone.
Other changes would eliminate zones that are not needed, according to the planners.
One such zone, the light industrial-4/rural residential zone, would be changed to just a light industrial zone. Another change would merge the LI-3 with the LI-2 so that there will only be one zone designation.
A major proposed change in zoning would be the creation of a public lands zone (PL) for land owned and used by the township government and schools.
"This will clearly indicate that the land cannot be developed," Tolischus said.
The new zone would include land that has been bought as open space as well as land that the township currently owns.
"It is not all open land," Marshall said.
Despite the new designation, the land owned by the township without a current use slated for it could still be sold, according to Marshall.
Not much else on those parcels will change, as far as their uses go, he said.
"It is only so those lands are not considered something else by those figuring building formulas," Marshall said after the meeting. He said regional growth groups determined what could be built on the land under the former zoning designation.
Marshall told the council that the present use of lands is permitted under the new zoning. Most of the proposed changes are designed to reduce the density of a given zone, he said.
One such change will limit the number of homes on the south side of town from one home on 2 or 3 acres to one home for every 6 acres. The majority of that rural residential zone will be south of Friendship Road and along Broadway, according to Marshall.
It was also proposed that the zone for about 100 properties on Major Road be changed, which the council did not approve of. That R-2 zone, which now allows two homes per acre, was slated to only allow one home per acre (R-1.)
"This may hurt the small guy a little," Councilman Chris Killmurray said.
Most of the property owners who will be affected by the changes will be sent a notice before a final vote is taken, but many in the PL zone will not.
Marshall said the municipality is not required to send out notices about certain changes when rezoning to be consistent with the master plan, according to a recent change in municipal land use law.
All owners of property within 200 feet of the zone changes will not be sent any special notice, he said. The changes will be noticed in newspapers and on a map in the municipal complex before they are voted on, he said.
Those next to the PL zone will also not get a special notice of the change.
"We held public hearings on this. It was the public disclosure," Marshall said.
He said after the meeting that the changes will likely take time to implement, and will not be decided on that quickly.