Lake Como City Zoning Code

Meetings of the Planning Board shall be scheduled no less often than once a month, and any meeting so scheduled shall be held as scheduled unless cancelled for lack of applications for development to process.

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

No action shall be taken at any meeting without a quorum being present. All actions shall be by majority vote of a quorum except where a specified portion of the full authorized membership is required; N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.

All meetings shall be open to the public. Notice of all such meetings shall be given in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, of the Laws of 1975.

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

A verbatim recording shall be made of every hearing. The recording of the proceedings shall be made by either stenographer, mechanical or electronic means. The Borough shall furnish a transcript or duplicate recording in lieu thereof on request to any interested party at his expense.

Certified Court Reporter. If an applicant desires a certified court reporter, the cost of taking testimony and transcribing it and providing a copy of the transcript to the Borough shall be at the expense of the applicant, who shall also arrange for the reporter's attendance.

Rules. The Planning Board may make rules governing the conduct of hearings. The rules shall be consistent with N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq. and this chapter. The approving authority may waive the required notices and hearing for minor and exempt subdivisions and site plans except where a variance or conditional use is part of the application. The Board shall hold a hearing on each application for a request for site plan or subdivision approval, zoning variance, conditional use, appeal, interpretation or direction for the issuance of a permit.

The presiding officer at the hearing (or such person as he may designate) shall have 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 (N.J.S.A. et seq.) shall apply.

The testimony of all witnesses relating to an application shall be taken under oath or affirmation by the presiding officer 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 to reasonable limitations as to time and number of witnesses.

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

When any hearing before the Board shall carry to two or more meetings, a member of the Board who was absent for one or more of the meetings shall be eligible to vote on the matter upon which the hearing was conducted, notwithstanding the member's absence from one or more of the meetings, provided such Board Member has received a transcript or recording of the meeting from which he/she was absent and certifies in writing to the Board that he/she has read such transcript or listened to such recording.

An application for development shall be complete for purposes of commencing the applicable time period for action when the application is certified complete by the approving authority. In the event that the application is not certified to be complete within 45 days of the date of its submission, the application shall be deemed complete upon the expiration of the forty-five-day period for purposes of commencing the applicable time period, unless:

The applicant may request that one or more of the submission requirements be waived, in which event, the approving authority shall grant or deny the request within 45 days.

Nothing herein shall be construed as diminishing the applicant's obligation to prove in the application process that he is entitled to approval of the application.

The approving authority may subsequently require correction of any information found to be in error and submission or additional information not specified in the ordinance or any revisions in the accompanying documents, as are reasonably necessary to make an informed decision as to whether the requirements necessary for approval of the application have been met. The application shall not be deemed incomplete for lack of any such additional information or revisions in the accompanying documents so required by the approving authority.

A resolution adopted at a meeting held within the required time period for action on the application; or

A memorializing resolution adopted at a meeting held not later than 45 days after the date of the meeting at which the approving authority voted to grant or deny approval. Only the members 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 resulting from the failure of a motion to approve an application shall be memorialized by a resolution as provided above, with those members voting against the motion for approval being the members eligible to vote on the memorializing resolution.

The vote on any such resolution shall be deemed to be a mineralization of the action of the approving authority and not be an action of the approving authority. However, the date of the adoption of the resolution shall constitute the date of the decision for purposes of mailings, filings and publications and set forth in subsection 17-12.6. If the approving authority fails to adopt a resolution or memorializing resolution, any interested party may apply to the Superior Court in a summary manner for an order compelling the municipal agency to reduce its findings and conclusions to writing within a stated time, and the cost of the application, including attorney's fees, shall be assessed against the municipality.