The Planning Board and its Relationship to the Environmental Commission

The New Jersey legislature has given municipal government the power to regulate land use through the The Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL). The seven or nine member planning board, ideally in partnership with the environmental commission, serves as the municipal land use planning agency. In Colts Neck, the Planning Board consists of nine members, plus two alternates.

The planning board formulates and adopts the municipal master plan, which must be reexamined every six years. The master plan guides the use of lands within the municipality. The planning board reviews the land use zoning ordinances, which are adopted by the governing body, to assure consistency with the master plan. It reviews and approves or disapproves applications for site development, subdivisions of property, and variances controlled by the land use ordinances.

The MLUL enables the municipal governing body to grant the planning board authority, funding and specific powers:

• Preparation and adoption of the municipality's master plan,

• Subdivision control and site plan review,

• Preparation of the official map, to reflect the provisions of the master plan,

• Preparation of the zoning ordinance and its conditional uses,

• Adoption of a capital improvements program, and

• Granting subdivision, site plan review, conditional use approval, as well as certain variances

Under the MLUL and the environmental commission enabling legislation, one member of the commission is also a member of the planning board. This member acts as a liaison between the two and communicates the commission's concerns to the planning board.