By Kristine Snodgrass and Lauren Otis
Local officials have expressed concern about proposed legislation they say would weaken their control over zoning laws in their municipalities.
State Senate bill S-82 and Assembly bill A-437 would modify the “time of decision rule,” which allows municipalities to change zoning regulations after an application is filed but before it is approved.
If the legislation is enacted, it would freeze zoning regulations in place at the time of the application so the municipality must apply whatever laws are in effect at that time when considering it.
The Senate bill was introduced last month and approved yesterday, Thursday, by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee. Sponsored by Sen. Ronald Rice, D-28, and Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-1, the bill now can be scheduled for a full vote by the Senate.
The Assembly bill was introduced in January and referred to the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee. Its sponsors include Assemblyman Jerry Green, D-22, and Assemblywomen Alison Littell McHose, R-24, and Charlotte Vandervalk, R-39.
Municipal leaders object that the legislation would mean errors in zoning ordinances could not be corrected, and the ability to give more consideration to planning concerns after an application is filed would be eliminated.
”This is really bad, a really bad law,” Montgomery Township Committeewoman Louise Wilson said.
Developers already come into the township to get an approval and don’t move for years, she said, while the municipality might want to change zoning for a host of valid reasons.
Speaking at Tuesday night’s committee meeting, she urged the committee to express its opposition to their legislators.
”This just completely takes the legs out from under the town to make changes that the planning board, governing body and public want to see,” she said.
The committee agreed to send a letter to Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee expressing its opposition to the bill.
At its Tuesday evening meeting, the Princeton Borough Council also unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the pending legislation. The council had been asked to adopt the resolution by the Princeton Environmental Commission, said Mayor Mildred Trotman.
Borough Council President Andrew Koontz said the bills in the state Senate and Assembly were both plainly pro-developer and said he saw no benefit to the municipality in supporting an amendment to the current law.
Councilman Kevin Wilkes said he believed the legislation was an attempt to alleviate a real burden on developers seeking approval for building plans, a process that could take them years and outlive the economic viability of their plans, but the current legislation was not the correct solution.
The Princeton Township Committee also expressed its opposition to the legislation through a resolution adopted at its meeting last week.
The resolution was circulatedby the New Jersey League of Municipalities, which has expressed its opposition to the proposed legislation, township attorney Ed Schmierer said.
”It would really eliminate an opportunity for a municipality to either correct a mistake we might pick up in a zoning regulation or to adopt a new state of the art storm water regulation and make it effective,” he said.
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