City of Hoboken, NJ Provisions Applicable To Both Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment

No member of the Planning Board or Zoning Board shall act on any matter in which that member has, either directly or indirectly, any personal or financial interest. If such a circumstance presents itself, that member shall disqualify himself or herself from acting on a particular matter. He or she shall not continue to sit with the Planning Board or Zoning Board on the hearing of such matter nor participate in any discussion or decisions relating thereto.

§ 44-302 Meetings.

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

Special meetings of the Planning Board or Zoning Board may be provided for at the call of the respective chair or at the request of any two members of the respective board. Said meeting 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 taken by a majority vote of a quorum of the members of the Planning Board, Zoning Board or SSPR Committee present at such meeting, except as otherwise required by any provision of the Municipal Land Use Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.) or this chapter. Failure of a motion to receive the number of votes required to approve an application for development shall be deemed an action denying the application.

All regular meetings and all special 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 Law, P.L. 1975, c. 231, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq.

A member of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board who was absent for one or more of the meetings at which a hearing was held shall be eligible to vote on the matter upon which the hearing was conducted, notwithstanding his or her absence from one or more of the meetings provided, however, that such Planning Board or Zoning Board member has available to him or her the transcript or recording of all the hearings from which he or she was absent and certifies in writing to their respective board that he or she has read such transcript or listened to such recording.

§ 44-303 Minutes.

Minutes of every regular or special meeting shall be kept and shall include the names of the persons appearing and addressing the Planning Board, Zoning Board or SSPR Committee and of the persons appearing by attorney, the action taken by the respective board or committee, the findings, if any, and reasons therefor. The minutes shall thereafter be made available for public inspection during normal business hours at the Planning Board or the Zoning Board office. Any interested party shall have the right to compel production of the minutes for use as evidence in any legal proceeding concerning the subject matter of such minutes. Such interested party may be charged a reasonable fee for reproduction of the minutes for his or her use, as provided for in the rules of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board.

§ 44-304 Application and referral procedures.

An application for development shall mean an application and checklists, on standard forms available in the Planning Board or the Zoning Board office, on the City's website, and attached to this chapter and made a part hereof as Appendix A.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Appendix A is included as an attachment to this chapter.

An application for development may be filed with the Planning Board or the Zoning Board for action under any of their respective powers without prior application to the Zoning Officer.

Within 45 days of the date of submission, the Secretary of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board shall certify an application as complete, in consultation with the respective Board professionals and any applicable municipal commissions and administrators, only if the application, checklist, all documents required by the checklist, application fee, and escrow fees have been received. If the application lacks the required information, documents, or fees, or requires referral pursuant to § 44-304, the applicant shall be so notified, in writing, of the deficiency, and the application shall be deemed incomplete. In the event that an application is not certified as either complete or incomplete within 45 days of its submission, it shall be, by default, considered complete for purposes of commencing the applicable time of decision action by the Planning Board or Zoning Board.

The Planning Board or Zoning Board, at its discretion, may require any of the following: correction of any information found to be in error; submission of additional information not specified in this chapter; or revisions to the accompanying documents as are reasonably necessary to make an informed decision as to whether the requirements for approval of the application have been met.

An applicant may request that one or more of the submission requirements be waived. The request shall be granted or denied, in writing, within 45 days of the date of submission, by the SSPR Committee for applications made to the Planning Board or by the Zoning Board Secretary in consultation with the Zoning Board professionals for applications made to the Zoning Board.

All applications for development within the special flood hazard area as designated by Chapter 104, Flood Damage Prevention, shall be transmitted to the Floodplain Administrator for review prior to the Planning Board or Zoning Board's hearing of the application. In the event application documents are not sufficient to satisfy flood plain review but are otherwise complete and the Planning Board or Zoning Board wishes to proceed with a hearing on the application, that Board shall condition any approval that is granted upon full compliance with the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.[2]

[2]

Editor's Note: See Ch. 104, Flood Damage Prevention.

Applications that are subject to review by the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) pursuant to Chapter 42, Historic Preservation, shall be transmitted to the HPC for its consideration and recommendation, which shall be submitted, in writing, to the Planning Board or Zoning Board prior to that board's hearing of the application. Applications subject to HPC review that have not been seen by that commission shall not be deemed complete.

Site plan and subdivision applications shall be referred to the Shade Tree Commission for consideration and recommendations. Any recommendations shall be submitted, in writing, to the Planning Board or the Zoning Board, as applicable. If that board is not in receipt of the Shade Tree Commission's report prior to the hearing, the Planning Board or Zoning Board's approval shall be conditioned upon compliance with Shade Tree Commission recommendations.

Whenever review or approval of an application by the County Planning Board is required by N.J.S.A. 40:27-6.3, in the case of a subdivision, or N.J.S.A. 40:27-6.6, in the case of a site plan, the Planning Board or Zoning Board shall condition any approval that it grants upon either timely receipt of a favorable report on the application by the County Planning Board or approval by the County Planning Board by its failure to report thereon within the required time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:27-6 et seq.

§ 44-305 Application fees and escrow deposits.

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-8(b), the City shall be reimbursed for the administrative costs associated with a development application from application fees.

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-53.1 and 40:55D-53.2, the City is further entitled to offset the costs of professional services engendered by a development application from escrow deposits.

(1)

Escrow deposits shall be in addition to the application fees and shall be used by the Planning Board or the Zoning Board to pay professionals for services rendered for review of applications for development, review and preparation of documents, inspection of improvements, or other purposes under the provisions of the Municipal Land Use Law. Those application review and inspection charges shall be limited only to professional charges for review of applications, review and preparation of documents, inspections of developments under construction, and review by outside consultants when an application is of a nature beyond the scope of expertise of the professionals normally utilized by the City. The only cost that shall be added to any such charges shall be actual out-of-pocket expenses of such professionals or consultants, including normal and typical expenses incurred in processing applications and inspecting improvements. No applicant shall be charged, from escrow, for any municipal, clerical or administrative functions, overhead expenses, meeting room charges or any of the municipal costs and expenses except as provided for specifically by statute, nor shall a municipal professional add any such charge to his or her bill.

(2)

The City shall be entitled to be reimbursed for the following: for the review of applications, both as to completeness and as to content; and for the review and preparation of documents, such as, but not limited to, drafting resolutions, developer's agreements and necessary correspondence with the applicant or applicant's professionals.

(3)

If review costs exceed the escrow deposited, the applicant shall pay the additional amount within 15 days of the request for additional funds. Failure to remit the additional required deposit within the requested timeline shall render the application incomplete, and no further action or proceedings shall be taken by the Planning Board or Zoning Board until after compliance. Where the review costs are less than the amount of the escrow deposit, the difference shall be returned to the applicant within 120 days of final disposition of the application.

A schedule of application fees and escrow deposits is hereby adopted by the governing body and attached hereto as Appendix B.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Appendix B is included as an attachment to this chapter.

An application shall be deemed to be incomplete until all application fees and escrow deposits are submitted. Fees and escrow shall be submitted as separate checks, payable to the City of Hoboken, in the amounts indicated on the fee schedule set forth in Appendix B. Where more than one fee category applies, the fee shall equal the combined total of fees required for each type of application.

§ 44-306 Hearings.

Rules. The Planning Board and Zoning Board shall make rules governing the conduct of hearings before such bodies, respectively, which rules shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq. or this chapter.

Oaths. The Board Attorney presiding at the hearing or such person as he or she may designate shall have the 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 applicant or others on the applicant's behalf, and the provisions of the County and Municipal Investigations Law, (N.J.S.A. 2A:67A-1 et seq.) shall apply.

Testimony. The testimony of all witnesses relating to an application for development shall be taken under oath or affirmation, 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 Chair and to reasonable limitations as to time and number of witnesses.

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

Records. The Planning Board, SSPR Committee and Zoning Board shall each provide for the verbatim recording of the proceedings by either stenographer, mechanical or electronic means. The Planning Board or the Zoning Board shall furnish a transcript or duplicate recording in lieu thereof on request to any interested party at his or her expense. All transcripts shall be certified, in writing, by the transcriber to be accurate.

§ 44-307 Notice requirements for hearing.

Whenever notice is required on an application for development pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq., or pursuant to the determination of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board, the applicant shall give notice thereof as follows:

Public notice shall be given by publication in the official newspapers of the municipality, at least 10 days prior to the date of the hearing, for the following applications for development:

(1)

Any request for a variance from the requirements of Chapter 196, Zoning;

(2)

Any request for conditional use approval;

(3)

Any request for minor site plan approval or preliminary approval of a major site plan;

(4)

Any request for a minor subdivision approval;

(5)

Any request for preliminary approval of a major subdivision; and/or

(6)

Any request for the issuance of a permit to build within the bed of a mapped street, public drainage way, flood control basin, or public area reserved on the Zoning Map, or in a lot not abutting a street.

Notice shall be given to all necessary persons, individuals, and/or entities, and shall follow all necessary and applicable procedures, as required by applicable laws, including without limitation N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.