Master Plan Changes Will Be Before Howell Council, Public

HOWELL, NJ — The Township Council meeting Tuesday, Dec. 12, will include public hearings on modified land use ordinances postponed from a previously cancelled meeting.

The Township Council meeting scheduled for Nov. 28 was cancelled for lack of a quorum, but the hearings are back on the Dec. 12 agenda.

There are no ordinances being introduced at the Dec. 12 meeting, according to the agenda. All ordinances previously listed for Introduction of Ordinances on the Nov. 28 agenda will be added to the first regularly scheduled meeting of January 2024.

That date will be determined after the Township Council reorganization meeting, which will take place on Jan. 2, 2024 at 5 p.m., the agenda says

The Planning Board recommended changes to the Master Plan, said Matt Howard, Community Development director, "and these ordinances are modifying the overall zoning consistent with those recommendations."

He said, in a past Patch article, that the zoning changes proposed impact a variety of uses, not just one. And no zoning change is taking place to prevent, change or eliminate one specific use, he added.

Howard also noted that the ordinances being proposed do not have any bearing on any existing application before the Planning or Zoning Boards. An application is bound by the zoning laws in place at the time of the application submission, Howard said.

Ordinances that change after an application is submitted do not impact that application.

You can read the ordinances up for adoption on the Dec. 12 agenda, here.

Howard said an ordinance introduced in October proposed changing the entire SED (Special Economic Development) zone near Oak Glen Road, Victory Road and County Route 547 to SED-1. SED-1 still permits warehousing as a conditional use as well as many other commercial/industrial uses, he said. But this change would avoid creating nonconforming uses within the zone.

He said an ordinance still to be introduced is similar to this one, keeping most of the parcels to SED-1. However, he said the parcels on Victory Road have been separated out and are proposed to change to ARE-6 (Agricultural Rural Estate).

"The governing body will decide to adopt the first ordinance (changing the whole area to SED-1) or introduce the new ordinance (all SED-1, except Victory Road going to ARE-6)," he said.

See this past Patch article for a full story about the land use ordinances, including those now to be introduced in January.