Borough Zoning Board reviews duties and role
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

RED BANK - - Members of the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment received a refresher course in their duties, responsibilities and the scope of the board's authority powers.

Borough Engineer Richard Kosenski gave a presentation at a special meeting April 12 with the help of Board Attorney Kevin Kennedy.

Kosenski began by explaining to board members the role of the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL), which was created in 1975 by the state to regulate how municipalities process development applications.

The MLUL was last updated in 2005, according to Kosenski.

"Prior to 1975," he said, "there wasn't a unified state standard. Towns were running roughshod over developers, bouncing them from Planning Board to Zoning Board, back to Planning Board, delaying applications."

The MLUL sets time limits within which municipalities must process and take action on development applications, according to Kosenski.

It also requires municipalities to have master plans in place and requires that they be reviewed at least every six years, as well as zoning and development ordinances, which set specific regulations to carry out the directives of the master plan.

"What a lot of applicants have been doing," cautioned Kosenski, "is saying that the master plan encourages certain areas to be a greater density and that's why you should allow higher density for their applications, even though what they're asking for is well above what the ordinance says. They're trying to tell you to ignore the ordinances in favor of the more vague master plan."

Kosenski explained that zoning and development ordinances regulate specific characteristics like the height, density and uses allowed within different zones.

He said the Zoning Board is a quasi-judicial board whose purpose is to hear testimony on a development application and then judge how the proposed project compares to the ordinance requirements and to decide if there are reasons to approve the application.

"We don't have members like this now," said Kosenski, "but in the past we had board members who would apply their own standards to an application. It isn't an issue for you to consider whether or not you like the application for the town."

Kosenski explained that although applicants often state that their development would be "good for the town," that distinction is to be made by the board, not the applicant.

"You're a powerful group," he said. Kosenski said that "c" variances, which the board is often asked to approve, deal with nonconforming topographical configurations for which applicants may seek approval claiming a "hardship" exists that argues for approval.

"If the whole zone suffers from the same topographic issue," he said, " then it's not a hardship. For instance, the entire RD zone [riverfront] has steep banks and wetlands. It has steep bank buffers and wetland buffers. It's not a unique site. It's not different than any one in that zone. If you were to deny something like this, it could go to court, but you shouldn't be afraid of someone saying that they'll take us to court. I'd stand by that decision."

According to Kosenski, "c" variances require three affirmative votes out of five, while "d" variances, which deal with such issues as expanding existing nonconforming uses and structures, require five of seven affirmative votes.Although some applications in front of the Zoning Board draw significant numbers of residents and neighboring property owners objecting to the project, the board cannot and should not depend on public outcry, or lack thereof, when deciding on a project, he said.

"It's easy when the public is out protesting vehemently to know what to do," he said, "but not all of the public is privy to the way this mechanism works. It's easy to say when no one is objecting that it must be a good project, but we still have an obligation to ask questions. We've been dealing with this for years, but a lot of the residents don't understand. It's up to you to do what's right and protect them."

The Zoning Board meets the first and third Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at borough hall, 90 Monmouth St.