Clinton City Zoning Code
ARTICLE V
Zoning Land Use Board
§ 88-28 Powers, duties and responsibilities to be transferred to Planning Board or Land Use Board.
From and after the effective date of the within chapter, all powers, duties, responsibilities, fees and application requirements of the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall be transferred to or applied to the Land Use Board of the Borough of the Town of Clinton pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55d-25c. All references in the within Article V of the Code of the Town of Clinton and within the Code of the Town of Clinton referring to the Zoning Board of Adjustment of the Town of Clinton shall hereafter apply to the Land Use Board of the Town.
§ 88-30 Powers.
A.
The Land Use Board shall have the power to:
(1)
Hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the appellant that there is error in any order, requirement, decision or refusal made by any municipal building or zoning official based on or made in the enforcement of the zoning regulations.
(2)
Hear and decide, in accordance with the provisions of the zoning regulations, requests for interpretation of the Zoning Map or zoning regulation or for decisions upon other special questions upon which such Board is authorized to pass by any zoning regulation or Official Map in accordance with this chapter.
(3)
Variance from application of zoning provisions.
(a)
Grant, by majority vote, a variance from the strict application of the zoning provisions of this chapter:
[1]
Where, by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property, or by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or physical features uniquely affecting a specific piece of property, or by reason of an extraordinary and exceptional situation uniquely affecting a specific piece of property or the structures lawfully existing thereon, the strict application of any regulation in the zoning provisions of this chapter would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to, or exceptional and undue hardship upon the developer of such property.
[2]
Where in an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property the purposes of the Municipal Land Use Law would be advanced by a deviation from the zoning provisions of this chapter and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment.
(b)
No variance under this Subsection A(3) shall be granted, however. from those departures enumerated in Subsection A(4), just below. If the proposed development requires a subdivision, site plan or conditional use approval by the Land Use Board but not a variance pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70d, the request for a variance under these circumstances shall be acted upon by the Land Use Board.
(4)
In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance to allow departure from the zoning regulations of this chapter to permit a use or principal structure in a district restricted against such use or principal structure, an expansion of a nonconforming use, deviation from a specification or standard (pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-67) pertaining solely to a conditional use, an increase in a permitted floor area ratio (as defined in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-4), or an increase in a permitted density (as defined in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-4) except as applied to the required lot area for a lot or lots for detached one- or two-dwelling unit buildings which lot or lots are either isolated undersized lots or lots resulting from a minor subdivision. Such variance shall be granted only by affirmative vote of at least five members of the Board.
(5)
Give direction pursuant to Section 25 of P.L. 1975, c. 291 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-34), for issuance of a permit for a building or structure in the bed of a mapped street or public drainageway, flood control basin or public area reserved on an Official Map.
(6)
Give direction pursuant to Section 27 of P.L. 1975, c. 291 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-36), for issuance of a permit for a building or structure not related to a street.
(7)
Grant, to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions as the Land Use Board, subdivision or site plan approval pursuant to Article VI or conditional use approval pursuant to § 88-21C whenever the Land Use Board is reviewing an application for approval of a variance pursuant to § 88-30A(4). In reviewing said subdivision or site plan, the Land Use Board shall follow the same procedures and be guided by the same standards as the Land Use Board as provided in Article VI of this chapter and, to that end, may establish a Subdivision and Site Plan Committee to function in the same manner as the Subdivision and Site Plan Committee of the Land Use Board.
§ 88-31 Appeals and applications to Land Use Board.
A.
Appeals to the Land Use Board may be taken by any interested party affected by any decision of any municipal building or zoning official based on or made in the enforcement of the zoning regulations or the Official Map. Such appeal shall be taken within 65 days by filing a notice of appeal with the official from whom the appeal is taken, together with the filing of three copies of said notice of appeal with the Secretary of the Land Use Board. Said notice of appeal shall specify the grounds of such appeal. The official from whom the appeal is taken shall immediately transmit to the Board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken.
B.
A developer may file an application for development with the Land Use Board for action under any of its powers without prior application to any municipal building or zoning official. Applications addressed to the original jurisdiction of the Land Use Board without prior application to an administrative officer shall be filed with the Secretary of the Zoning Land Use Board. Three copies of the application shall be filed. At the time of filing the appeal or application, but in no event less than 10 days prior to the date set for hearing, the applicant shall also file all plot plans, maps or other papers required by virtue of any provision of this chapter or any rule of the Land Use Board. The applicant shall obtain all necessary forms from the Secretary of the Zoning Land Use Board. The Secretary of the Board shall inform the applicant of the steps to be taken to initiate proceedings and of the regular meeting dates of the Board.
§ 88-32 Time limit for decision.
A.
The Land Use Board shall render a decision not later than 120 days after the date that an appeal is taken from the decision of an administrative officer or not later than 120 days after the date of the submission of a complete application for development to the Land Use Board pursuant to § 88-31 of this chapter.
B.
Failure of the Board to render a decision within such one-hundred-twenty-day period or within such further time as may be consented to by the applicant shall constitute a decision favorable to the applicant.
C.
Whenever an applicant for development requests relief pursuant to § 88-30A(7), the Land Use Board shall grant or deny approval of the application within 120 days after submission by a developer of a complete application to the Board or within such further time as may be consented to by the applicant. Failure of the Land Use Board to act within the period prescribed shall constitute approval of the application, and a certificate of the Secretary of the Board as to the failure of the Land Use Board to act shall be issued on request of the applicant, and it shall be sufficient in lieu of the written endorsement or other evidence of approval herein required and shall be so accepted by the county recording officer for purposes of filing subdivision plats.
§ 88-33 Modification on appeal.
The Land Use Board may reverse or affirm, wholly or in part, or may modify the action, order, requirement, decision, interpretation or determination appealed from and, to that end, have all the powers of the administrative officer from whom the appeal is taken.
§ 88-34 Stay of proceedings by appeal; exception.
An appeal to the Land Use Board shall stay all proceedings in furtherance of the action in respect to which the decision appealed from was made, unless the officer from whose action the appeal is taken certifies to the Land Use Board, after the notice of appeal shall have been filed with him, that by reason of facts stated in the certificate a stay would, in his opinion, cause imminent peril to life or property. In such case, proceedings shall not be stayed other than by an order of the Superior Court upon notice to the officer from whom the appeal is taken and on due cause shown.
§ 88-35 County Land Use Board review.
Whenever review or approval of the application by the County Land Use Board is required by Section 5 of P.L. 1968, c. 285 (N.J.S.A. 40:27-6.3), in the case of a subdivision, or Section 8 of P.L. 1968, c. 285 (N.J.S.A. 40:27-6.6), in the case of a site plan, the Land Use Board shall condition any approval that it grants upon timely receipt of a favorable report on the application by the County Land Use Board or approval by the County Land Use Board by its failure to report thereon within the required time.
§ 88-36 Referral to other agencies.
An application under this section may be referred to any appropriate person or agency, including the Land Use Board, pursuant to Section 17 of P.L. 1975, c. 291 (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-26), for its report, provided that such reference shall not extend the period of time within which the Zoning Land Use Board shall act.
§ 88-37 Vote necessary for decision.
The final disposition of any matter by the Board shall require the concurring vote of four of its members except as provided in § 88-30A(4).
§ 88-38 Expiration of variance.
Any variance from the terms of this chapter hereafter granted by the Land Use Board permitting the erection or alteration of any structure or structures or permitting a specified use of any premises shall expire by limitation, unless such construction or alteration shall have been actually commenced on each and every structure permitted by said variance or unless such permitted use has actually been commenced within one year, unless expressly limited to a shorter period by the terms of the variance as originally approved by the Land Use Board, from the date of entry of the judgment or determination of the Land Use Board; except, however, that the running of the period of limitation herein provided shall be tolled from the date of filing an appeal from the decision of the Land Use Board to the governing body or to a court of competent jurisdiction until the termination in any manner of such appeal or proceeding or unless extended by the Land Use Board upon the showing of good cause.