Boro looks to merge two land use boards

BY VINCENT TODARO Staff Writer

-SPOTSWOOD — If you combine a PlanningBoard and a Zoning Board of Adjustment, what do you get?

A more encompassing Planning Board, for one. And in the borough’s case, you also get cost savings, and more continuity when it comes to borough planning and development, according to council President Curtis Stollen.

The Borough Council recently introduced an ordinance to consolidate the two land use boards. New Jersey’s smaller towns are permitted to consolidate its boards, Stollen said. Jamesburg has long used a combined land use board.

Planning boards hear applications that are congruent with a town’s current zoning laws, while applications that stray from those laws go before the Zoning Board. Stollen said it is possible to combine the two boards, as long as elected officials who serve on the new board do not hear Zoning Board applications. In other words, the mayor and council members cannot hear those applications.

One benefit of the combined board, Stollen said, will be to provide continuity: If an application has been voted on by the Planning Board but then seeks relief from a zoning law, the same board members would review and decide on the case.

The idea of combining boards has been talked about since former Mayor Barry Zagnit was in office, and current Mayor Thomas Barlow showed the council a feasibility study to demonstrate the benefits.

The consolidation is done via an ordinance, but if the borough decides to go back to two separate boards, it can only do so via a public referendum.

“But many small communities are doing this and I don’t see it not working,” Stollen said.

Spotswood currently holds two Planning Board meetings and one Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting per month. The new board would hold two meetings each month, Stollen said, and would have just one attorney. Currently, each of the two boards has an attorney.

The ordinance would call the new ninemember board the Planning Board, and would also expand the number of alternate members from two to four.

Stollen said the limited space on the new board would mean that some current members of the Zoning and Planning boards would have to step down.

The council, he said, wants to have the new board in place for January.