Zoners seek council action to help panel address issues

Zoners seek council action
to help panel address issues

HOWELL — The Township Council has received a list of requests from the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s chairman and vice chairman.

In a recent meeting with the governing body, the two zoning board representatives said the action they were requesting from the governing body would better enable the board to conduct its business.

Chairman John Van Noy first thanked council members for taking the time to hear the year-end review, saying past administrations never wanted to take the time to listen to the review.

First, Van Noy said, the zoning board needs the governing body to set up a pre-set certification for non-conforming lot uses. He said an official interpretation was needed in order to ensure that "the same rules are evenly applied to everyone who comes before us."

Another request was that the council members consider amending the land use ordinance governing sex shops. There are several such stores on Howell’s stretch of Route 9.

Van Noy said it was not the intent of the zoning board to curtail free speech, but rather an effort to confine such enterprises as adult video and novelty stores to a specific zone that is "not obnoxious to churches, schools and other places of public gathering."

Van Noy also requested a special amendment regarding the placement of cellular communications towers in the township and was informed by Mayor Timothy J. Konopka that the governing body was in the process of developing an ordinance to address that issue.

Zoning board Vice Chairman Steve Meier told the council the cell tower amendment to the land use ordinance should include the requirement that any applicant seeking to construct a cell tower must have an established carrier and not be building a tower on the speculation of acquiring one.

"This way it makes it harder for them to prove need" if their application is denied by zoning the board, Meier said.

Meier also said a provision should be included that would require an applicant who is proposing to build a cell tower to provide the zoning board with a "propagation map" in order to prove the need for a tower in a requested location.

(Meier reiterated these points at the council’s meeting Monday when the matter of an amended cell tower ordinance was under discussion. The cell tower ordinance will be held for final public hearing and adoption by the council at the April 8 meeting.)

At the earlier meeting, Van Noy asked the governing body to address the need for a home-office ordinance. He said zoning board members were getting concerned regarding sign limits and the degree of outdoor activity allowable in certain zones insofar as the number of trucks and workers allowed.

The two representatives also asked the council to adopt an amendment to the process of application to the zoning board with regard to site drawings. They suggested that any individual who is doing his own construction to his own dwelling where the work is 15 percent or less of the total square footage not be required to hire an engineer to draw up plans.

They said this can mean an additional expense of about $3,000 to individuals just to come before the zoning board. They said drawings prepared by the applicant for minor work would suffice.

Finally, they asked that the zoning board be provided with access to the complete master set of township ordinances during their meetings.

Interim township manager Bruce Davis said he would look into either making the ordinance books available or of putting the information on a computer disk and making one of the municipal office computers available for the zoning board’s use.

Van Noy and Meier also asked that the members of the town’s economic development committee attend land development courses that are offered through Rutgers University and Brookdale Community College.

Van Noy said this would help make sure "we are all on the same page."