Politics & Government

Letter: Vote 'No' on Referendum

A former Hopatcong zoning board chairman calls referendum to combine planning and zoning boards 'badly conceived.'

The following is a letter to the editor from Joe Buongiorno, a former chairman of Hopatcong's zoning board.

In the letter, Buongiorno makes the argument why Hopatcong residents should vote down a into a single land-use board.

Read the letter below.

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By now all of you have received a letter from the Mayor urging us to vote yes on the referendum that would allow the Borough to combine the Planning and Zoning Boards into one Board called the Hopatcong Borough Land Use Board. Mayor Petillo claims that the boards have cancelled so many meetings that combining the two Boards will “make the process easier and less expensive for the applicant and save the Borough money."

A review of the Borough Website reveals some very interesting facts that contradict the Mayor’s assertion. First, Both the Zoning and Planning Boards have met every month this year through June as provided by the minutes posted. The Planning Board did cancel its Jul meeting.  Conveniently there are no other posted minutes for July through October for the Zoning Board and from August to October for the Planning Board. It is noted that the Borough Council Meeting Minutes are up to date. Secondly, a review of past years meeting minutes reveals the following. For the period of 2007 to 2011, the Zoning Board averaged nine meetings per year and the Planning Board averaged 13 meetings per year. As one would expect, the highest totals per year for both Boards was in 2007 and the lowest were in 2008.  This is to be expected with the economic problems that the country is facing.

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Zoning Boards and Planning Boards are established in accordance with the State Municipal Land Use Law. Under NJ state law, both boards have similar power, but the Boards have two completely different roles. Some of the Zoning Board functions are: to hear and decide appeals of decision or refusal made by an administrative official or agency; to hear and decide requests for interpretation of the zoning map; to grant a variance to a property due to exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape or property, topographic conditions or other extraordinary and exceptional situation that would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties, or exceptional and undue hardship; allowing a structure or use ("D" variance) in a district restricted against such structure or use, but only by affirmative vote of at least five members of the Board.

Some of the Planning Board functions are: creating, updating and adopting the Borough Master Plan and proposing associated zoning ordinances, land subdivision and site plan review, creating the official map, the zoning ordinance including conditional uses, review of the capital improvement program, and variances and certain building permits in conjunction with subdivision, site plan and conditional use. The Board is also empowered to review and approve "C" variances (departures from zoning ordinances) in conjunction with development applications.  A "D" variance can only be approved by the Zoning Board

Another difference in how members are appointed.  The Planning Board members are appointed by the Mayor and Zoning Board members are appointed by the council.

Former Mayor (Cliff) Lundin is correct in his observations when he states (in a comment on ):  “A combined board might work in very small towns or fully built out towns, but not in a town our size. Right now the Boards are not busy, but in the past they were. A combined board could be completely overwhelmed by the numbers of applications if the economy ever picks up. This would cause a loss in effectiveness in planning functions. There are several critical issues that must be faced: (Council On Affordable Housing), Town Center, Highlands, etc. The Planning Board should be concentrating its time on addressing these issues. A combined board also reduces the total number of people involved in the land use process. This allows a concentration of control in the Mayor and Council. It reduces public input and impact. On the whole, a BAD idea”

Combing the zoning board into the planning board would give any mayor complete control over all the buildings in Hopatcong.

If they want to save money, here are some suggestions:

The Planning Board’s posted schedule shows that they meet twice a month.  Why?  State law only requires monthly meetings.  Meeting once a month would decrease the two board’s legal fees for attendance by their lawyers by 33%.

There is no need for the town engineer to show up every meeting.  The Borough’s engineer is an outside consultant. That is how the Borough has always worked since we do not need a full time engineer. As engineering documentation comes in, it is sent to his office for review. A short note approving the work or pointing out deficiencies is all that is needed. Certainly, for more complicated issue, the Boards would want his attendance.  But in reality that may only occur 10% or 15% of the time. That would save big dollars without compromising the approval process. I served on the Zoning Board for almost a decade we only had the engineer present as needed, which was not very often.

I urge you to vote on Tuesday and vote NO on this badly conceived referendum.

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