Zoning Board Appeal Process May Drop Township Council Hearings

Update, 12:50 p.m.: The planning board will no longer consider the township council appeals as part of the revisions under discussion Tuesday night. For more information, read .

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Cherry Hill’s planning board could take a step toward wiping out one level of appeals of zoning board decisions, as part of a number of revisions to the township’s zoning ordinance under consideration for recommendation to the township council at its meeting Tuesday night.

One of the proposed revisions, detailed in a legal notice published by the township, would strike an entire section of Article IV-A of the ordinance that allows for parties to appeal to the township council applications involving use variances granted by the zoning board.

The township council level of appeal has been a source of some controversy in recent months, after the council postponed, then canceled entirely, an appeal by nine residents of the zoning board’s decision to allow a use variance to a developer planning an apartment complex at the old Haddonfield Lumber site.

Those residents, including Bert MacKay and Robert Shinn, questioned whether the council had deliberately run out the clock on that appeal, a charge council members denied.

“Both the mayor and council acted both in good faith and completely within the legal authority of how these matters are able to be dealt with,” council President David Fleisher said previously.

Instead of use variance appeals going to the township council first, the amended ordinance would force those appeals to Superior Court, as is the case currently with all appeals of zoning board decisions that don’t involve use variances.

The planning board meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night in the N. John Amato Council Chambers on the second floor of the township municipal building. The specific changes being proposed are up for consideration following two applications to the board; while the planning board can make recommendations on the changes to the zoning ordinance, a final decision on those changes is in the hands of township council at a later meeting.