MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING BOARD

OF THE BOROUGH OF MOUNTAIN LAKES

April 22, 2010

Chair Sandy Batty read the Open Public Meeting Advertisement Notice adopted at the annual meeting on January 28, 2010:  Adequate notice of this meeting was given to the Citizen and the Daily Record, posted with the Borough Clerk and on the Bulletin Board on February 4, 2010, and made available to all those requesting individual notice and paying the required fee.

ROLL CALL:

Members Present: Nachshen, Batty, Nix, Bailey, Lewis, Kane, and Jackson (7:40)

Absent: Selver, Bravo, Holmberg and Zamierowski

Absent: Engineer Bill Ryden and Attorney Peter Henry

REVIEW OF MINUTES: Barry Lewis made a motion to adopt the minutes of the March 25, 2010 meeting. Martin Kane seconded the motion; the minutes were approved by voice vote.

PUBLIC HEARINGS:

CIGCO, LLC                                                              1 Hillcrest Road

BK. 95 Lot 36                                                             Appl. 10-241

Soil Moving                                                                  RA

The Planning Board Secretary received a letter requesting their application be carried to the May 27, 2010 meeting.  A motion was made by Barry Lewis and the second was provided by Corey Nachshen. The Board granted the extension by a vote of 5 to 0 with members Batty, Lewis, Nachshen, Bailey and Kane voting for the extension.

ADOPTION OF THE BY-LAWS

The board made two additional corrections to the by-laws. Martin Kane made a motion to adopt the by-laws as amended; a second was provided by Jim Bailey. The resolution was approved by a voice vote.      

OTHER BUSINESS:

Master Plan Committee – 10. Historic Preservation Plan – The Historic Preservation Committee sent a letter to the Borough Council concerning the need to enact an ordinance to protect the Borough’s iconic structures and to update the Historic Preservation chapter of the Master Plan. The Council is expecting the Planning Board to provide them with direction.  The Master Plan Committee has updated the chapter. Joan Nix gave the Board an overview of the current plan.  The committee recommends use of the Criteria of Significance to determine the Borough’s potential iconic structures and how historic preservation would impact the other elements of the Master Plan. Finally they made recommendations for the Council to consider when potentially adopting a historic preservation ordinance. Joan Nix stated the committee was now looking for Planning Board comments. 

The Board made the following suggestions to the Master Plan Committee. The Historic Preservation Objectives could be simplified. They should provide a definition of the following terms: historic, iconic and landmark. Under the Municipality Designated Historic Landmarks and Historic Districts section the properties with national and state designations should be listed first.  The section on Evaluation of Impact on Other Master Plan Elements should be abbreviated and the reader should be directed to an appendix for further information.  Everyone thought it was best to confirm this was acceptable with the Borough Planner, Duggan Kimball. Barry Lewis will do so. The Board also discussed providing potential zoning relief to private property owners of iconic structures.

Lastly the Board went through the list of suggestions for passing a historic preservation ordinance. George Jackson confirmed the Planning Board could put suggestions in the Master Plan but the council did not have to pass an ordinance to support the plan. The Master Plan Committee was suggesting the Historic Preservation Committee become a Commission again, this would have to be done by ordinance. Joan Nix told the Board the “Demolition Cooling Off” period suggested in their recommendations had been supported in the courts. She felt this was needed in Mountain Lakes. Jim Bailey thought the suggested ordinance should be broken down into 2, one for landmark buildings and one for demolition. 

Mr. Jackson also felt the ordinance proposals were good suggestions but questioned how they would be turned into an ordinance. Barry Lewis told the Board they would have to adopt the Historic Preservation element before anyone could write an ordinance. Sandy Batty also reminded the Board that they would have to have a public meeting.  She stated they could do a public hearing on a single element. Joan Nix felt her committee could incorporate the Board’s ideas into the element in one month’s time.  The Board could then review the element again at the next meeting.

There were no comments from the public.

Highlands Committee

Housing Element – Sandy Batty explained the copy of the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan in their packet was for the Boards information only. The Borough had received grants to work on the plan with the Borough Planner.  The Borough’s COAH obligation is 43 units. If the Borough opts-in to the Highlands our obligation would be reduced to 11 units. According to the Planner those 11 units could be met with accessory apartments.  The Borough has until June 8^th to submit their Fair Share Plan but currently everything pertaining to COAH is uncertain. Even though the state may dismantle COAH we will still have to have a housing element as part of our Master Plan. Therefore the work that has been done on this plan would still be valuable to us as a community.

Time of Decision Bill – The bill has still not been signed by the Governor. 

Sandy Batty told the Board she was approached by the town of Denville to conduct a joint Planning Board meeting. The Board did not see any issues the two towns had to discuss so they had no interest to meet at this time.

Sandy Batty made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The Board adjourned at 9:45 PM.

                                                                                    Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                    Cynthia Shaw, Secretary