HOWELL — People seeking a waiver from farmland buffer requirements for one reason or another should have to get relief from elected officials and not from the appointed members of township boards, according to one resident.
Wendell Nanson of Yellow Brook Road is a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. However, when he addressed the Township Council about the issue at a recent meeting he said he was speaking as a resident and not as a board member.
Nanson said he has heard there is a plan to revise the current powers shared by the planning and zoning boards regarding the ability to grant buffer relief waivers.
He said he does not believe the zoning board or the Planning Board should be able to grant any kind of buffer relief. Nanson said that decision should only be made at the council level.
"We’re going to open a big can of worms here. We grant relief for one now [and] we’re going to get a floodgate opening right down the line. I don’t think that’s what our elected officials had in mind," he said.
Township attorney Thomas Gannon said that under state land use law, ordinance relief is subject to a decision from whatever board has jurisdiction over the applicant seeking that relief.
Planning Board Chairwoman Pauline Smith said changing the present system would dilute the power of any board hearing an application.
Mayor Timothy J. Konopka noted that Howell’s buffer ordinance was recently amended to allow leeway due to a problem with pool and patio contractors violating the buffer ordinance.
"We fixed that problem for future construction with the amended ordinance," the mayor said.
However, said Konopka, a problem still exists for residents who find themselves in violation of the buffer ordinance because the developer’s construction of their lot is such that "much of their backyard is part of the farmland buffer."
Currently, any homeowner within an established buffer zone must seek a waiver from the zoning board in order to make any improvements to their home or lot.
Resident William Trethewey, who sits on the Planning Board, also addressed the issue. Trethewey said the zoning board is and should be the only board allowed to grant relief from the farmland buffer requirement.
However, he noted that any citizen can post a $1,500 escrow fee and request that an appeal of a zoning board decision be heard by the council.
Trethewey said he believes the zoning board is the proper board to grant farmland buffer relief. He said with the council available as an appellate body for any zoning board decision that might be challenged, the checks and balances are already in place.
— Kathy Baratta