BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – Democratic State Sen. Ellen Karcher believes the all-Republican Township Council is playing politics with its recent passage of a resolution that requests an amendment to pending state legislation.
The state Senate recently passed two bills which if signed into law by Gov. Jon Corzine would permit municipalities to adopt ordinances that require enhanced public notification of development applications.
The legislation, which is now before the state Assembly, allows a designated municipal official to post a sign or signs on a property in order to notify the public of a proposed development application for that location.
The bill imposes the obligation of posting, maintaining and removing the signs on the municipality. The applicant who has proposed the development would be required to pay a fee not to exceed $75 to cover the costs of printing and posting the signs.
At present, an applicant who wants to develop a property must send a notice to all property owners within 200 feet of the development site. The notice explains when a public hearing on the plan will be held and notifies the property owner that he may comment on the project. The proposed state law would permit a municipality to expand that requirement and require the notice to be sent to all property owners within 300 feet of the development site.
Although the Township Council strongly supports the purpose of the bill, the resolution that was passed on June 15 disagrees with the municipality’s responsibility to post, maintain and remove the signs that would be placed at a property that has been identified for development.
During the council meeting, several councilmen said they believed Karcher (D-Monmouth and Mercer) should have contacted them to discuss the provisions of the law.
The News Transcript reported those comments in a June 21 article.
In response, Karcher said Marlboro officials had ample opportunity to comment on the bill. The senator said local officials had since February, when the bills were introduced, to express any concerns they had regarding the provisions of the law.
She noted that Marlboro’s official lobbying arm in Trenton, the League of Municipalities, testified in support of the bill. By passing the resolution it did earlier this month, the council is now lobbying against the League of Municipalities, Karcher said.
There is a process in Trenton that Marlboro officials could have had input on, she said.
“[Marlboro officials] don’t work inside the process. These bills have been out there in one form or another since February. There were many sponsors of the bill, they didn’t just have to talk to me,” Karcher said. “They’re playing politics. This is not being done because it has a real basis, it’s just politically motivated. It undermines their intent.”
Also during the council meeting on June 15, Mayor Robert Kleinberg said he believes Karcher is protecting developers instead of protecting residents.
In response to the mayor’s comment, Karcher said her original bill, which was later merged with another Senate bill, was very strict and anti-developer.
According to the senator, the bill she wrote stated that failure to post a public notification sign at a proposed development site would be reason enough for a land use board to deny the application. However, Karcher said, that language was softened during the legislative process.
Nevertheless, she said the current proposal is good legislation that needs to be made law.
“This is a bill that is long overdue,” she added.