§ 16.76.040. Provisions applicable to the land use review board.

A.

Conflicts of Interest. No regular or alternate member of the land use review board shall act on any matter in which he or she has either directly or indirectly any personal or financial interest. Whenever any such member shall disqualify himself or herself from acting on a particular matter, he or she shall not continue to sit with the board on the hearing of such particular matter nor participate in any discussion by the board or any decision relating thereto.

B.

Meetings.

1.

Meetings of the land use review board shall be scheduled no less than once a month and any meeting so scheduled shall be held as scheduled unless cancelled for lack of applications for development to process.

2.

Special meetings may be provided for at the call of the chairperson or on the request of any two board members, which meetings shall be held on notice to its members and the public in accordance with all applicable legal requirements.

3.

No action shall be taken at any meeting without a quorum being present, such quorum to be the majority of the full authorized membership of the board.

4.

All actions shall be taken by majority vote of the members of the board present at the meeting except as otherwise required by a provision of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1, et seq. A member of the board who was absent for one or more of the meetings at which a hearing was held shall be eligible to vote on a matter upon which the hearing was conducted, notwithstanding his or her absence from one or more of the meetings; provided, however, that such board member has available to him or her the transcript of recording of all of the hearing from which he or she was absent, and certifies in writing to the board that he or she has read such transcript or listened to such recording.

5.

All regular meetings and all special meetings shall be open to the public, except as provided in the Open Public Meeting Law C.231, Laws of New Jersey, 1975. Notice of all such meetings shall be given in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meeting Law C.231, Laws of New Jersey, 1975.

C.

Public Hearings.

1.

Subsequent to an application for development being declared complete, the land use review board shall hold a hearing on the application for development. The board shall make rules governing such hearings.

2.

Any maps and documents for which approval is sought at a hearing shall be on file and available for public inspection at least ten (10) days before the date of the hearing during normal business hours in the office of the administrative officer. The applicant may produce any documents, records or testimony at the hearing to substantiate or clarify or supplement the previously filed maps and documents.

3.

The officer presiding at the hearings, or such person as he or she may designate, shall have the power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of relevant evidence, including witnesses and documents presented by the parties, and the provisions of the County and Municipal Investigations Law, P.L. 1953, C.38 (C.2A:67A-1, et seq.) shall apply.

4.

The testimony of all witnesses relating to an application for development shall be taken under oath or affirmation by the presiding officer, or such other person as he or she may designate, and the right of cross-examination shall be permitted to all interested parties through their attorneys, if represented, or directly, if not represented, subject to the discretion of the presiding officer and reasonable limitations as to time and number of witnesses.

5.

Technical rules of evidence shall not be applicable to the hearing, but the board may exclude irrelevant, immaterial or unduly repetitious evidence.

D.

Public Notice of a Hearing.

1.

Public notice of a hearing shall be given for all applications for development.

2.

The secretary of the land use review board shall notify the applicant at least two weeks prior to the public hearing at which the application will be discussed. Notice of a hearing requiring public notice shall be given by the applicant at least ten (10) days prior to the date of the hearing in the following manner:

a.

Publication in an official newspaper of the borough, if there is one, or in a newspaper of general circulation in the borough in the absence of an official newspaper; and

b.

By notification by personal service or certified mail to the following. An affidavit of proof of the giving of the required notice shall be filed by the applicant with the municipal agency at, or prior to, the hearing. It is not required that a return receipt is obtained since notice is deemed complete upon mailing (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-14); however, evidence that the required notice was mailed to the following shall be provided to the land use review board prior to the subject public hearing:

i.

To all owners of real property as shown on the current tax duplicate, located in the state and within two hundred (200) feet in all directions of the property which is the subject of the hearing; provided that this requirement shall be deemed satisfied by notice to the: (A) condominium association, in the case of any unit owner whose unit has a unit above or below it; or (B) horizontal property regime, in the case of any co-owner whose apartment has an apartment above or below it.

(1)

Notice to a partnership owner may be made by service upon any partner,

(2)

Notice to a corporate owner may be made by service upon its president, a vice-president, secretary or other person authorized by appointment or by law to accept service on behalf of the corporation.

(3)

Notice to a condominium association, horizontal property regime, community trust or homeowners' association, because of its ownership of common elements or areas located within two hundred (200) feet of the property which is the subject of the hearing, may be made in the same manner as to a corporation without further notice to unit owners, co-owners or homeowners on account of such common elements or areas;

ii.

To the clerk of any adjoining municipality or municipalities when the property involved is located within two hundred (200) feet of such adjoining municipality or municipalities;

iii.

To the Ocean County planning board when the application for development involves property adjacent to an existing county road or proposed road as shown on the county official map or county master plan, adjoining other county land or situated within two hundred (200) feet of a municipality boundary;

iv.

To the Commissioner of Transportation of the state of New Jersey when the property abuts a state highway;

v.

To the State Planning Commission when the hearing involves an application for the development of property which exceeds one hundred fifty (150) acres or five hundred (500) dwelling units, in which case the notice shall include a copy of any maps or documents required to be filed with the borough;

vi.

To the person whose name appears on the registration form pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-12.1 for a public utility, cable television company or local utility which possesses a right-of-way or easement within the borough.

3.

Upon the written request of an applicant, the borough tax collector shall, within seven days, make and certify a list from current tax duplicates of names and addresses of owners within the borough to whom the applicant is required to give notice. In addition, the borough tax collector shall include on the list the names, addresses and positions of those persons who, not less than seven days prior to the date on which the applicant requested the list, have registered to receive notice pursuant to subsection (D)(6) of this section. The applicant shall be charged twenty-five cents ($0.25) per name or ten dollars ($10.00), whichever is greater, for the list and shall be entitled to rely upon the information contained in such list, and failure to give notice to any owner or to any public utility, cable television company or local utility not on the list shall not invalidate any hearing or proceeding. Additionally, the applicant shall be responsible for giving proper notice to all property owners pursuant to subsection (D)(2)(b) of this section who own property not located within the borough.

4.

At minimum, the notice shall state the name and address of the applicant; the date, time and place of the hearing and the nature of the matters to be discussed, including all variances and/or waivers requested by the applicant; an identification of the property proposed for development by street address, if any, and by reference to lot and block numbers as shown on the current tax duplicate in the borough tax assessor's office; and the location and times at which any maps or documents for which approval is sought are available for inspection.

5.

Regarding any application for development being reviewed by the land use review board and the board determines that substantial revisions have been made to the application subsequent to the date when it was determined to be a complete application, then the board may require the applicant to again comply with the notice requirements specified in this section of Title 16.

6.

a.

Every public utility, cable television company and local utility interested in receiving notice pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-12 may register with the borough in which the public utility, cable television company or local utility has a right-of-way or easement.

b.

The registration shall remain in effect until revoked by the public utility, cable television company, or local utility or by its successor in interest. The administrative officer of the borough shall adopt a registration form and maintain a record of all public utilities, cable television companies and local utilities which have registered with the borough. The registration form shall include the name, address and position of the person to whom the notice shall be forwarded. The information contained in the registration form shall be made available to any applicant.

c.

A registration fee of ten dollars ($10.00) is required for any public utility, cable television company or local utility which registers to receive notice.

E.

Records.

1.

Minutes of every regular or special meeting shall be kept and shall include the names and addresses of the persons appearing and addressing the land use review board and of any persons appearing by attorney, the action taken by the board, the findings, if any, made by it and the reasons therefor. The minutes shall thereafter be made available, after approval by the board, for public inspection during the normal business hours at the office of the administrative officer. Any interested party shall have the right to compel production of the minutes for use as evidence in any legal proceedings concerning the subject matter of such minutes. Such interested party shall be charged a reasonable fee for the reproduction of the minutes.

2.

A verbatim recording shall be made of every hearing on an application for development submitted to the borough. The recording of the proceedings shall be made either by stenographer, mechanical or electrical means. The municipality shall furnish a transcript or duplicate recording, in lieu thereof on request to any interested party at his or her expense, provided that the charge for a transcript shall not exceed the maximum amount permitted by law. Each transcript shall be certified in writing by the transcriber to be accurate.

F.

Decisions.

1.

Each decision on any application for development shall be reduced to writing by the board and shall include findings of facts and conclusions based on such findings.

2.

The board shall provide the findings and conclusions through:

a.

A resolution adopted at a meeting held within the time period provided in this title for action by the board on the application for development; or

b.

A memorializing resolution adopted at a meeting held no later than forty-five (45) days after the date of the meeting at which the board voted to grant or deny approval. Only the members of the board who voted for the action taken may vote on the memorializing resolution, and the vote of a majority of such members present at the meeting at which the resolution is presented for adoption shall be sufficient to adopt the resolution. An action pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9 (resulting from the failure of a motion to approve an application) shall be memorialized by resolution as provided above, with those members voting against the motion for approval being the members eligible to vote on the memorializing resolution.

3.

The vote on any memorializing resolution shall be deemed to be a memorialization of the action of the board and not to be an action of the board; however, the date of the adoption of the resolution shall constitute the date of the decision for purposes of the mailings, filings and publications required in Section 16.76.050 of this chapter.

4.

If the board fails to adopt a resolution or memorializing resolution as specified above, any interested party may apply to the Superior Court in a summary manner for an order compelling the board to reduce its findings and conclusions to writing within a stated time and the cost of the application, including attorneys fees, shall be assessed against the municipality.

5.

Approvals Subject to Specified Conditions.

a.

Whenever any application for development is approved by the board subject to specified conditions intended to be fulfilled before the approval becomes effective, such approval shall lapse and become null and void unless all specified conditions are fulfilled within six months of the date the approval was granted by the board unless a longer time period is specified by the board.

b.

Whenever any application for development is approved by the board subject to conditions which are not required to be fulfilled before the approval becomes effective and are not guaranteed pursuant to Section 16.84.020 of this title, then the failure to fulfill any such condition within two years from the date of the approval of the application for development shall be grounds for the issuance of a stop work order by the enforcing official and the withholding of any zoning permit, construction permit, certificate of occupancy or any other approval until such condition is fulfilled.

c.

Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as preventing the board from specifying a longer period of time within which any specific condition must be fulfilled, or from granting an extension of time for fulfilling a condition for good cause shown.

d.

Only upon fulfillment of all conditions precedent shall any subdivision plat or site plan be signed or any required zoning permit, construction permit, occupancy permit or other approval be issued.

e.

The fulfillment of all conditions, precedent or subsequent, shall be reported in writing by the applicant to the board, which may cause such reports to be verified in an appropriate manner.

(Ord. 93-5 § 704, 1993)