Planning a Town
It has many moving parts and it is important to do thoughtfully.
By Carrie Kitze
Every town in NJ has a mechanism to determine how changes in property use affect a municipality. It allows vacant land to be reused in different ways and buildings that are decrepit or underutilized to have a new life. Towns create a “road map” to look at the overall needs of the town, which is called the Master Plan. Bound Brook did one about 10 years ago. Here is a link to the existing Master Plan ¹ and additional documentation that has been created as different areas in downtown are being revitalized. Master Plans are required by law to be reviewed at a minimum of every 10 years, and we are overdue to take a look at ours.
Master Plans are developed by professionals who have expertise and education in urban planning. They look at the different areas in a town, their respective uses, the functionality of the town, features that can’t be changed, demographics like population, physical features, open space, income levels, residential density, walkability, transit, etc. There is research and professional understanding on how a Master Plan will be implemented. There is also input from our government and from our residents. A tremendous amount of research, resident input, professional expertise, and understanding of our town’s needs were incorporated in the creation of Bound Brook's Master Plan.
Implementation is through the Planning Board
The Planning Board is the arm of our local government that looks at the laws we have for how we use the land in our community. Some towns have an additional board that just handles the zoning cases. Bound Brook is small enough (1.6 square miles and roughly 12,000 residents) that we have a combination Planning/Zoning Board. Appointments are made by the mayor, and people can have 1-4 year terms. Full disclosure, I was appointed in January and am filling in an unexpired term.
Zoning started in 1918 and determines what things can be done in what areas of the town. It covers things like building height, density, and kinds of use. So, for example, having a factory in a residential area would fall under zoning. Zoning attempts to match use, need, and community impact. Zoning can also help areas that are struggling, like a downtown with a lot of vacant lots, by making suggestions of what would be allowed to come into a space. Zoning can only be changed by ordinance, i.e., a law passed by our Borough Council. However, any change in zoning should follow the guidelines set forth in the Master Plan. Land Use Laws don’t allow for spot zoning (changing the zoning on a particular parcel that is not changed on other parcels) or changing zoning out from under a land owner who has submitted documents to the planning board.
Planning Boards are regulated by local ordinances and State Land Use Laws. In New Jersey, every member of the Planning Board is required to take training to understand what they are legally empowered to do or not to do. One thing I learned is that being on the planning board doesn’t allow you to just exercise your own opinions on things. We are bound by law to follow the Land Use Laws approved by the state and the ordinances approved by our city council. We can’t just vote against something if we don’t like it, if it follows all the laws and the ordinances. The Planning Board can only apply and follow the ordinances that have been passed by the town council. If a project is asking for no variances and is a permitted use, then we, as a planning board, must approve it. It is against the law not to. During the training I took earlier this year, we were told that we needed to do a re-training every 10 years. I believe that a refresher is always good.
What is the point of planning?
Planning serves a purpose. It allows us to dream about the possibilities of what our town could be based on the framework of what we have. It also allows us to set some guidelines on the kind of industry, business, or residences we are interested in welcoming to town. The master plan process has public comment portions included in the research for creating it. A master plan is the vision for the future and is a great road map for what could be.
Each of the selected potential businesses or residential opportunities is also a potential for revenue for the Borough. These are called ratables, and that is what we use to help fund our budget. A ratable is a property that provides tax income for local governments. The house that you live in provides revenue in property taxes, a business provides tax revenue for what they sell and revenue for their property, multi-family dwellings and apartments provide additional revenue based on living units plus their property values.
Figuring out what kind of ratables to attract which are things a town wants can be challenging. A town needs revenue, but what ratables make sense? In years past, Bound Brook welcomed industry. In 1930, Bound Brook was heralded as the county’s foremost industrial town.² Sherwin-Williams manufactured paint and insecticides, and Union Carbide created many things, including so much chemical waste that it caused the plant to be shuttered in 2004 with the discovery of leaking barrels of toxic waste. The legacy from that has been massive cleanups, water with toxic chemicals, and areas of town we are unable to use to this day without massive cleanups. Today, our master plan has no place where industries like that are welcomed. We have learned from the past that “clean” ratables are more prized. And residential or high-density residential allows us to expand our ratables with a lesser impact on our town.
Our town has gone through a number of revitalizations. Looking at the 1916 Sanborne Fire map³, you can see the number of “flats” and “tenements” that existed in much of downtown. They were constructed to meet the growing needs of laborers and immigrants. The high-density housing of the 1917’s has come full circle. Both times, there were needs in the community for housing. And Bound Brook stepped up to the plate to help house people, not unlike today. NJ is currently facing a housing shortage, which is why when each of the new projects in our town is ready for occupancy, they fill up quickly.
The future is Ours
The Master Plan is a vision for the future. It is a forward-thinking document. And each of us needs to think about what the future of Bound Brook can look like. Our downtown is a work in progress and is moving toward the future by making choices. There are pros and cons to each, but what needs to happen is the dialogue and discussion as we look to create and implement a new Master Plan for the next decade.
1 https://boundbrook-nj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-Reexam-Report.pdf
2 Stratford, D.A.A. and McKay, M. (2000) Bound Brook. Charleston, SC: Arcadia.