New Hanover Township
City Zoning Code

There is hereby established, pursuant to Chapter 291 of Laws of 1975,[1] in the Township of Hanover a Planning Board of nine members and two alternates.

The Planning Board shall consist of four classes of members, plus alternates, as follows:

Alternate members. There shall be two alternate members of the Planning Board appointed by the Mayor. Alternate members shall meet the qualifications of Class IV members of the Planning Board. Alternate members shall be designated at the time of appointment by the Mayor as "Alternate No. 1" and "Alternate No. 2."

The term of the member composing Class I shall correspond to the Mayor's official tenure. In the case of the Mayor's designee in the absence of the Mayor, the designee shall serve at the pleasure of the Mayor during the Mayor's official tenure.

The terms of the members composing Class II and Class III shall be for one year or terminate at the completion of their respective terms of office, whichever occurs first, except for a Class II member who is also a member of the Environmental Commission, as set forth in Subsection C below.

The term of a Class II or Class IV member who is also a member of the Environmental Commission shall be for three years or shall terminate at the completion of his term of office as a member of the Environmental Commission, whichever occurs first.

The term of a Class IV member who is also a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission or Board of Education shall terminate when he is no longer a member of such other body or at the completion of his Class IV term, whichever occurs first.

The terms of all Class IV members shall be for four years, except for Class IV members who are also members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission, Board of Education or Environmental Commission as set forth in Subsections C and D above. The terms of all Class IV members first appointed under this chapter shall be so determined that, to the greatest practical extent, the expiration of such terms shall be distributed evenly over the first four years after their appointment, provided that the initial Class IV term of no member shall exceed four years. Thereafter, the Class IV term of each such member shall be four years.

The term of alternate members shall be for two years.

Nothing contained herein shall affect the terms of any present member of the Planning Board, all of whom shall continue as members until the completion of the terms for which they were appointed.

All terms shall run from January 1 of the year in which the appointment is made.

Prepare, adopt and, from time to time, amend or revise a Master Plan for the Township of Hanover.

Exercise control over the review of subdivisions and site plans in accordance with this chapter.

Assemble data on a continuing basis as part of a continuous planning process.

Exercise such control as may be conferred upon it by this chapter over the granting of applications for conditional uses.

Approval of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use.

Exercise such other duties as may be assigned to it by ordinance or resolution of the governing body and perform such other functions as may be authorized by the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (P.L. 1975. c. 291) or any amendment or supplement thereto.

Prior to the adoption of a development regulation, revision or amendment thereto, the Planning Board shall make and transmit to the governing body, within 35 days after referral, a report including recommendations concerning the proposed development regulation, revision or amendment. The governing body, when considering the adoption of a development regulation, revision or amendment thereto, shall review the report of the Planning Board and may disapprove or change any recommendation by a vote of a majority of its full authorized membership and shall record in its minutes the reasons for not following such recommendations. Failure of the Planning Board to transmit its report within the thirty-five-day period provided herein shall relieve the governing body of the requirements of this subsection in regard to the proposed development regulation, revision or amendment thereto referred to the Planning Board.

The governing body may, by ordinance, provide for the reference of any matter or class of matters to the Planning Board before final action thereon by a municipal body or municipal officer having final authority thereon, except for any matter under the jurisdiction of the Board of Adjustment. Whenever the Planning Board shall have made a recommendation regarding a matter authorized by this Act[1] to another municipal body, such recommendation may be rejected only by a majority of the full authorized membership of such other body.

The terms of the members initially appointed shall run from January 1 preceding the date of appointment, with the terms of the members distributed as follows:

Thereafter, the term of each member shall be four years. A vacancy occurring otherwise than by expiration of term shall be filled for the unexpired term only.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment shall adopt bylaws and such other rules and regulations governing its procedural operation, which bylaws, rules and regulations shall be consistent with the provisions of this chapter and P.L. 1975, c. 291.[1] The Board shall elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman from its members and select a Secretary who may or may not be a member of the Board of Adjustment or a municipal employee. The Board may employ, or contract for, and fix the compensation of legal counsel, other than the Municipal Attorney, and experts and other staff and services as it may deem necessary, not exceeding, exclusive of gifts or grants, the amount appropriated by the governing body for its use.

The Board of Adjustment shall, at least once a year, review its decisions on applications and appeals for variances and prepare and adopt by resolution a report on its findings on Zoning Ordinance provisions which were the subject of variance requests and its recommendations for Zoning Ordinance amendment or revision, if any. The Board of Adjustment shall send copies of the report and resolution to the governing body and Planning Board.

Hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the appellant that there is error in any order, requirement, decision or refusal made by the Zoning Officer based on or made in the enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance.[1]

Hear and decide requests for interpretation of the Zoning Map or regulations or for decisions upon other special questions upon which such Board is authorized to pass by any zoning regulation or Official Map regulation, in accordance with this chapter or P.L. 1975, c. 291, as amended.

Where, by reason of the 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 pursuant to Article 8 of the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (P.L. 1975, c. 291)[2] would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to or exceptional and undue hardship upon the developer of such property, grant, upon an application or an appeal relating to such property, a variance from such strict application of such regulation so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship. Where, in an application or appeal relating to a specific piece of property, the purposes of this chapter would be advanced by a deviation from the Zoning Ordinance requirements and the benefits of the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment, the Zoning Board of Adjustment shall have the power to grant a variance to allow departure from regulations pursuant to Article 8, of the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (P.L. 1975. c. 291); provided, however, that no variance from these departures enumerated in Subsection D, as hereinafter outlined, shall be granted under this subsection, and provided, further, that the proposed development does not require approval by the Planning Board of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use in conjunction with which the Planning Board has power to review a request for a variance pursuant to Section 47a of P.L. 1975, c. 291.[3]

In particular cases and for special reasons, grant a variance to allow departure from regulations, pursuant to Part 5 of this chapter, to permit:

Direct the issuance of a permit pursuant to Section 25 of P.L. 1975, c. 291,[4] for a building or structure in the bed of a mapped street or public drainageway, flood-control basin or public area reserved pursuant to Section 23 of said Chapter 291.[5]

Direct the issuance of a permit pursuant to Section 27 of P.L. 1975, c. 291,[6] for a building or structure not related to a street.

Grant, to the same extent and subject to the same restrictions as the Planning Board, subdivision or site plan approval pursuant to Part 4 or conditional use approval pursuant to Part 5 whenever the proposed development requires approval by the Board of Adjustment of a variance pursuant to Subsection D of this section. The developer may elect to submit a separate application requesting approval of the variance and subsequent application for any required approval of a subdivision, site plan or conditional use. The separate approval of the variance shall be conditioned upon the granting of all required subsequent approvals by the Board of Adjustment. No such subsequent approval shall be granted unless such approval can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantial impairment of the intent and purpose of the Zoning Map and Zoning Regulations.[7] The number of votes of Board of Adjustment members required to grant any such subsequent approval shall be as otherwise provided in this chapter for the approval in question, and the specific vote required pursuant to Subsection D of this section shall not be required.

No variance or other relief may be granted under the terms of Subsections A, B, C and D above unless such variance or other relief can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and unless such variance or other relief will not substantially impair the intent and purposes of the Zone Plan and Zoning Ordinance.

Appeals to the Board of Adjustment may be taken by any interested party affected by any decision of the Zoning Officer or Township Engineer of the Township based on or made in enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance or Official Map. Such appeal shall be taken within 20 days by filing a notice of appeal with the officer from whom the appeal is taken, specifying the grounds of such appeal. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall immediately transmit to the Board of Adjustment all papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken.

A developer may file an application for development with the Board of Adjustment for action under any of its powers without prior application to the Zoning Officer or Township Engineer.

The Board of Adjustment shall render a decision not later than 120 days after the date an appeal is taken from the decision of the Zoning Officer or the date of the submission of a complete application for development to the Board of Adjustment pursuant to Section 59b of P.L. 1975, c. 291.[1]

In the event that the developer elects to submit separate consecutive applications for a use variance as provided in § 166-19D of this chapter, the one-hundred-twenty-day provision shall apply to the application for approval of the variance. The period for granting or denying any subsequent site plan approval shall be as otherwise provided in this chapter. Failure of the Board of Adjustment to act within the prescribed period or within such further time as may be consented to by the applicant shall constitute a decision favorable to the applicant.

"Substantial commencement" defined. As used in this section, "substantial commencement" shall be interpreted to mean actual material construction and/or alteration of the improvements, or the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and/or habitability in the case of changes of use, that were the subject of the variance application, but shall not include demolition of existing structures, removal of debris, clearing, tree removal, installation of silt fencing or other such preconstruction activities that would be permitted without such variance.

Variances not subject to site plan, subdivision or conditional use approval. Variance approvals from the Zoning Board of Adjustment which do not also require subdivision, site plan or conditional use approval shall expire one year after the date of the adoption of a resolution or memorializing resolution of approval, unless there has been substantial commencement of the development, unless such period is tolled or extended as set forth below.

Variances granted with subdivision, site plan or conditional use approval. Variances from the Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Adjustment which were granted with associated subdivision, site plan and/or conditional use approvals shall expire on the same date as the expiration of the period of statutory protection against changes in the zoning regulations, unless construction or alteration of the improvements, and/or the use, as applicable, that were the subject of the development application have substantially commenced, unless such period is tolled or extended as set forth below. In addition, any variances which were a prerequisite for subdivision approval shall also expire if the plat or deed for the subdivision has not been filed with the County Recording Officer within the time frames required by law.

Bifurcated variance applications. Variances from the Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Adjustment which are bifurcated from all required subsequent subdivision, site plan and/or conditional use approvals from the Board shall expire unless the following conditions are complied with:

Extension of variances. The Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Adjustment, as applicable, may, upon good cause shown in writing, extend the expiration terms for variances specified in Subsections B, C, and D above. The following procedures shall apply:

Tolling of variances. Notwithstanding the foregoing expiration provisions, in the event that, during the period of approval heretofore or hereafter granted to a variance, the developer is barred or prevented, directly or indirectly, from proceeding with the development otherwise permitted under such approval by a legal action instituted by any state agency, political subdivision or other party to protect the public health and welfare or by a directive or order issued by any state agency, political subdivision or court of competent jurisdiction to protect the public health or welfare and the developer is otherwise ready, willing and able to proceed with said development, the running of the period of approval under this chapter shall be suspended for the period of time said legal action is pending or such directive or order is in effect.