FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — On Election Day, Nov. 3, Freehold Township residents will be asked to vote on a referendum that could, if approved, lead to the consolidation of two municipal boards.
The “yes” or “no” referendum will ask voters if they want to allow the Township Committee to consider adopting an ordinance to consolidate the Zoning Board of Adjustment into the Planning Board.
“The town is nearing build-out. We see (consolidation of the planning and zoning boards) as an efficient and economic way of running our boards,” Township Administrator Peter Valesi previously said.
Valesi said “one body and one board would bring continuity.”
Officials said the level of ac tivity before both boards has decreased substantially over the past several years and is not anticipated to increase back to levels which would require the existence of two boards, in large part due to the limitations on developable properties remaining in the township.
Consolidating the zoning board into the Planning Board will reduce the expenses associated with maintaining two separate boards and employing separate professionals who provide advice and services to each board, according to municipal officials.
The following statement will be included on the ballot with the referendum question: “A vote in favor … will allow the Freehold Township governing body to consider the adoption of an ordinance which would consolidate the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment into the township’s Planning Board. If such ordinance is adopted by the governing body, the expense of funding two boards should decrease and all development applications would then proceed before the Planning Board pursuant to the provisions of the Municipal Land Use Law, including all development applications which previously would have been made to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.”
Municipal law, in this case, requires the Township Committee to seek voter approval for the consolidation of the two boards.
The ordinance states that “the statutory authority under which the township may undertake such action limits the township only to the choice of consolidating the Zoning Board of Adjustment into the Planning Board and does not allow the township to integrate the membership of the two boards.”