Newly Adopted Ordinance Enhances Zoning in Freehold Borough

The Freehold Borough Council has adopted an ordinance that will enhance the overall zoning of the town.

At the Monday, March 4 council meeting, a new ordinance that amends Land Use and Zoning procedures was unanimously adopted after careful revisions from the Mayor and Council. According to the ordinance, the new changes are consistent with the borough’s Zone Plan and Master Plan.

After introducing the ordinance, Councilman George Schnurr, who is also the Liaison to the Freehold Borough Planning Board, explained what the highlights of the new ordinance are and how they help residents.

“This ordinance was approved by the Planning Board, Land Use Committee to highlight our problems,” said Schnurr. The six highlights of the ordinance are as follows.

1. Applicants can now submit sketch plans and conceptual site plans. This enables the Planning Board and applicant to discuss and evaluate principles and potential problems involved before they go through the expense of completing detailed engineering drawings.

2. It legitimizes home office use.

3. It makes a conditional-use for the following: grocery store, convenience store and dollar store. There will also be a conditional-use for taxi and limousine services because of the parking requirement of one space per vehicle.

4. Residential zones R-4 and R-5 will not require a garage. It will require that applicants have two off street parking spaces as opposed to a garage.

5. The ordinance outlines the minimum off street parking requirements.

6. Shows a schedule of area and yard building requirements for all of the residential and commercial zones.

Freehold Borough attorney Kerry Higgins explained that the new ordinance is pursuant to the Master Plan Reexamination Report and adopted by the planning board on April 13, 2011.

“It [the new ordinance] was introduced back in the fall and held because there was a question about the size of signs for a motor vehicle gas stations only specifically matching that because this differs from the one that was originally introduced and from the master plan reexamination report because everybody including the planning board, the downtown and the historic preservation committee had thought that had been an error in the original sign size, it was too large “ said Higgins.