By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Lawrence Township has joined a growing chorus of municipalities that are opposed to a pair of state bills that would exempt private universities from appearing before municipal Planning Boards.
Township Council approved a resolution at its Aug. 21 meeting that opposes Senate Bill 1534 and Assembly Bill 2586, which would exempt private universities such as Rider University from seeking Planning Board approval for development projects.
The two proposed bills would impact 14 private colleges or universities that have campuses in 16 municipalities. S-1534 was approved by the state Senate in June, but A-2586 has been referred to the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee.
In recent years, Rider University has constructed several new buildings and renovated others. It relocated the dean of students to a newly purchased property and then renovated and expanded the dean’s former house to accommodate the school’s Public Safety Department.
The school also gained Planning Board approval to construct a new classroom building and a theater addition to the Bart Luedeke Student Center, as well as an expanded student parking lot and two new dormitories.
Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun emphasized that the Planning Board’s experience with Rider University as an applicant “has always been professional and cooperative,” but the proposed legislation would remove the school’s need to appear before the board.
”Our opposition is that the university is surrounded by primarily residential zoning uses and we would want to make certain that any changes to the university campus would have the least amount of impact to the sites adjacent to the campus,” Mr. Krawczun said.
Mr. Krawczun, who doubles as the Community Development director, said the township wants to ensure that Rider University’s application would meet storm water, traffic and bulk requirements in the municipal Land Use Ordinance “just like everyone else.”
According to Township Council’s resolution, “Exempting private universities from the Municipal Land Use Law would adversely affect land use controls that now protect municipalities, the county and their residents and (it) would damage the self-determination of municipalities and their residents to create the community they seek.”
”There is no rational basis to exempt private universities from the Municipal Land Use Law while not exempting other private corporations,” according to the resolution adopted by Township Council. A copy of the resolution was sent to the clerks of the state Senate and state Assembly, and to Gov. Chris Christie.
The New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which represents the state’s 566 municipalities, and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association also opposed the proposed legislation. They also pointed out that the bills would set a precedent for other nonprofit organizations that would also seek to be exempt from municipal planning regulations.
The APA noted that the bill “purports” to build on the New Jersey State Supreme Court’s 1971 ruling on a lawsuit involving Rutgers University and Piscataway Township, in which the university sought approval for a development application.
According to the APA’s statement of opposition to the proposed bills, the 1971 lawsuit relied on the principle of sovereign immunity of state government. The state Supreme Court “held that in enacting statutes respecting Rutgers, the Legislature intended that the growth and development of the university, as a public university for the benefit of all of the people of the state, was not to be thwarted or restricted by local land use regulations” and that Rutgers was immune from them.
The state Supreme Court’s ruling only applied to public universities and “not one word” was said regarding private universities, the APA statement said. Private universities “are not accountable public bodies under state law” and were not established for the benefit of all of the people of New Jersey, it said.