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Howell mulls new zoning designation |
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3/13/2007 |
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Asbury Park Press
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
HOWELL — The Township Council will hold a public hearing 7:30 p.m. March 20 at the municipal complex, 251 Preventorium Road.
The Township Council has introduced an ordinance that would create a new zoning category in the 61-square-mile community.
"It is a very progressive ordinance," Township Manager Thomas Czerniecki said of the proposed ARE-4 district, which would cover agricultural and rural areas of the township. "It leverages market forces in (an) effort to preserve open space."
ARE refers to agricultural rural estate zones — areas the township has been working to preserve. Under the new proposed zoning category, four homes would be permitted on a 1-acre tract.
The ordinance would require developers to submit a fully engineered layout plan to determine which areas of a property are buildable and which are not, as it would pertain to a cluster layout, Czerniecki said. In a cluster layout, housing would be grouped together, leaving areas for open space.
"The ARE ordinance also does one other thing that we do not have," he said. "It sets impervious coverage limits in residential zones."
These limits are meant to help protect the environment, he said.
"Lacking impervious coverage limits, we run into a lot of problems where people tend to pave over large portions of their tract and (therefore) create flooding issues for their neighbors," Czerniecki said.
Guidelines under the proposed ordinance require that at least 60 percent of the developer's tract be designated as "open lands" and be restricted to agriculture and conservation use only.
The council will hold a public hearing on the proposal at 7:30 p.m. March 20 in the municipal complex, 251 Preventorium Road.
Also on the schedule that night is a public hearing on the new reserved Mount Laurel district that would rezone a Colts Neck Road tract from its current planned retirement community designation to allow for affordable housing.
BY MICHELLE GLADDEN
FREEHOLD BUREAU
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