New zoning has been adopted for a section of Main Street in Sayreville to encourage a mix of uses, including small businesses and residences.
The Borough Council voted unanimously April 28 to adopt two ordinances creating new overlay zones within the existing zoning on Main Street.
One of the new zones is designed to encourage professional offices and other small businesses in a largely residential section of Main Street.
Planning Board Chairman Dr. John Misiewicz said the zoning change would allow residential property owners in the General Village zone to convert their properties to small-scale commercial uses without having to apply to the borough’s zoning board, as long as the setback requirements are met.
“It allows a little more flexibility [for] rental and business to come into that area,” he said. “Parking is always an issue on Main Street, but I think we can accommodate that in one way, shape or form.”
Misiewicz said accountants, lawyers, computer-repair services or programmers are examples of uses that would not generate a large need for parking.
The ordinance could encourage more mixed-use development along Main Street with commercial uses on the ground floor and residential space above, Misiewicz added.
“Hopefully, we can bring some of that back into the Main Street area, and the master plan talks about this,” he said.
The General Village zone runs along Main Street between Washington Road and Sayreville Boulevard.
Permitted uses in the overlay zone include single- and two-family homes, residential apartments, childcare centers, retail stores, convenience stores, banks, service shops and restaurants, and business, medical and professional offices. Several uses are prohibited in the zone, including laundromats, tattoo and massage parlors, substance abuse counseling and treatment centers and amusement facilities.
The second ordinance adopted creates another overlay in the R-7B [Residential- Business] zone that will allow commercial property owners in the zone to convert properties into residential uses.
The ordinance adopted for the R-7B zone allows for detached single-family dwellings, institutional and public uses, essential services, community shelters and community residences in the infill overlay zone.
“This ordinance is intending to allow commercial properties in our residential R- 7 zone that may have been damaged by superstorm Sandy and allowed to convert those commercial units back into residential units,” borough engineer Jay Cornell said.
The master plan was updated in 2013, and had not previously been updated since 1998, Misiewicz said
He said there would be other zoning ordinances for the council to consider in the coming months that will work in conjunction with the updated master plan.
“There will be many changes of many ordinances as we come along and other sections of town will get noticed, and we will try to get the ordinances in line with the new master plan,” Misiewicz said.