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Planner: master plan work nearly complete; recent ruling on "inherently beneficial" uses will require added analysis
Summary
Consultant Joe Burgess told the Rochelle Park Land Use Board that base maps, land-use and environmental mapping and socioeconomic work are mostly done; he said a recent court decision about "inherently beneficial" uses will require the township to analyze which zones should permit those uses and to add that analysis to the master plan.
Joe Burgess of Burgess Associates briefed the Rochelle Park Land Use Board on July 16 on the status of the township's master plan update and warned that a recent court decision will require extra zone-by-zone analysis.
"All the environmental mapping, I do believe, is complete," Burgess said, and reported that the existing land-use survey and demographic work are finished; summary reports and the consultant's formal write-up remain to be completed after Burgess returns from vacation. He said the plan team expects to begin subcommittee meetings in early September and that follow-up sessions can be held by Zoom.
Burgess said a case involving "inherently beneficial" uses — discussed in the meeting as affecting affordability or age-restricted housing and similar uses — changes municipal duties when updating a master plan. He told the board that the critical element requires balancing "the positive and the negative criteria" and that municipalities preparing new master plans are expected to review each zone and comment on whether inherently beneficial uses would be appropriate there.
The board discussed possible study areas the governing body requested, including the Passaic Avenue and Rochelle Avenue corridors and a property near the Dairy Queen (identified in the meeting as Overlook). Burgess said the master plan process can run the corridor-area-needs studies in parallel; the governing body would receive recommendations and then decide whether to designate an area in need of redevelopment or rehabilitation.
Board members and residents raised traffic concerns tied to a large development in neighboring Paramus and suggested local mitigations (one-way streets or dead ends on some cut-through roads). Burgess said state law requires planners to analyze adjoining municipalities and he will obtain the Paramus project's traffic report to include the analysis in Rochelle Park's work.
Burgess advised that the master plan will include recommendations but that the governing body makes final designations; if the governing body chooses to go against the planner's recommendation a different voting procedure would apply. The board did not take any final votes on zoning designations at the July 16 meeting; Burgess said he will deliver the outstanding summary reports after his return and begin subcommittee meetings in early September.
