Board solicitor McGroarty suggests two-step application process
Page 4 • Wednesday, February 26, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
TOWN, from Page 3
Newsome to resubmit at a later
date.
the board revisited the topic
before the close of the meeting.
“there’s a separate issue that
troubled me at the last meeting
and troubles me now, is that we
brought two applicants in who had
to be told sort of at the last minute
that their application was incom-
plete,” McGroarty said.
McGroarty noted that there are
specific time frames attached to
applications when they are re-
ceived, and that the process
needed streamlining. He sug-
gested a two-step process,
wherein the application is first
deemed to be complete before it is
listed before the board for review.
“Because of the time frames, I
think we’re handling both the sub-
stance and the completeness of the
application simultaneously, and
we end up with a situation like
tonight,” McGroarty said.
the board decided that a modi-
fied procedure was necessary to
attempt to avoid similar situations
in the future.
“Kim [MacLane, board secre-
tary] will give it to us as soon as
she receives it, and we’ll monitor
it first for completeness, then it
goes back to Kim to determine
scheduling,” McGroarty said.
the board also had a discussion
regarding roof-mounted and
ground-mounted solar panel ar-
rays.
“I think we need professionals
when people want to not put a
solar-mount system on their roof.
It’s already required that they have
an engineer to decide whether a
roof can actually hold the weight
of a solar-mount array. But, be-
cause of the relationship between
the solar company and the home-
owner, when they come before us
and say that the pitch of the sun is
wrong, we’re just taking that per-
son’s word for it. I think if they
want to do that, they should have
a professional state that, because
the solar company is going to say
whatever the homeowner wants,”
Pherribo said.
Board member Michael Pullia
agreed with his colleague, but was
unsure as to exactly what kind of
professional would be best-suited
to examine the non-structural is-
sues that may arise with a roof-
mounted solar array.
“If an applicant is coming in for
a ground-mounted array, by and
large—and please correct me if
I’m wrong—they’re going to need
a site plan. those site plans are
supposed to be—by law—pre-
pared by an engineer, an New Jer-
sey-licensed
professional
engineer. So the person who is
preparing the site plan, theoreti-
cally, could also certify that the
roof is not appropriate for what-
ever reason for a roof-mounted
solar. I don’t think it’s really
adding another level of profes-
sionals; I think it’s what they
should be doing anyway,” Wiser
said.
Pullia suggested that Wiser and
McGroarty get together to discuss
how best to address the issue,
which might require modifying
Ordinance #013-2019, which gov-
erns ground-mounted solar arrays.
“at the next meeting, we’ll
open discussion up again and see
where we stand,” board chairper-
son ed Marinelli said.
In other board business, the fol-
lowing resolutions were read and
adopted:
Joseph Pantalone Use Variance
- Ground Mounted Solar array 10
Carriage Way Block 1705/Lot
200/zone rr; applicant was ap-
proved for ground mounted solar
array on his property where only
roof mounted would be permitted.
tara enterprises Minor Subdi-
vision & Variances for Lot Width,
Frontage and Size, 473 N. Second
rd. application #1-20PB Block
303/Lot 8 & 9/ zones aP & rr;
applicant was approved for minor
subdivision to move lot lines with-
out creating any new parcels) and
for the requested variances.
the next meeting of the plan-
ning board will be on March 4 at
7 p.m. in town hall.
SOLD!
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