Three Ordinances Up for Adoption at Tonight's Council Meeting

The next meeting of Lawrence Township Council will take place tonight Tuesday, April 2, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building at 2207 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206).

The meeting agenda is also available from the township’s website.

For the convenience of readers, the contents of the meeting agenda are also reproduced below:

Introduction of Ordinances:

There are no ordinances for introduction.

Adoption of Ordinances:

There are three ordinances for adoption.

• Ordinance 10-A amends the Lawrence Township Municipal Land Use Ordinance. The action will repeal the Planned Village Development 3 (PVD III) district and apply the Highway Commercial district use on Quakerbridge Road where it intersects with Lawrence Station Road. This is the only PVD III district in the Township so there is no longer a need to retain it in the Land Use Ordinance.
• Ordinance 10-B authorizes an appropriation CAP bank.
• Ordinance 10-C amends the Lawrence Township Municipal Land Use Ordinance. The following summarizes the provisions of the amendment: multiple buildings and uses will be permitted in accordance with the zoning in place on a single lot except for most residential uses; definitions have been added to distinguish health care facilities, medical offices, minute clinics and urgent care centers that have different intensities of use; a definition of a pad site has been added; the use of a convenience store is modified to remove the size limitation of 4,000 sf.; the Highway Commercial District is modified to allow shopping centers under the permitted use category; accessory uses and structures have been modified to include canopies for service stations and passenger drop off; outdoor seating standards are clarified; the service station standard has been modified to allow combined service station and other uses if the lot is increased in size to one and one-half acres; and a new requirement has been added that requires the main building in a shopping center to bebuilt and occupied before a pad site is built and occupied. The separation requirements from a service station have been removed.

Resolutions

The agenda includes routine administrative authorizations as well as resolutions providing for refunds, bond releases and acceptances.

• Resolution 17-H certifies the expended amount for the state mandated recycling tax for 2012 at $35,000.
• Resolution 17-I establishes the policy for the amount of surplus to be retained as an available balance after designating the portion to be anticipated as revenue in the municipal budget. The target is to retain a minimum of one month’s general revenues exclusive of current year property taxes. The target amount will be phased in by year-end 2015. The purpose for establishing the policy at this time is to meet a requirement for having said policy that has been set by the New Jersey Division of Local Government Services Best Practices checklist.
• Resolution 17-J authorizes the acceptance of a bid in the amount of $25,000 for the sale of Township owned land on Glenn Avenue. Three other locations were included in the auction but no bids were received. The locations were: two lots on Rolfe Avenue and one lot on Johnson Avenue.
• Resolution 17-L authorizes a change order to the contract of ADP, Incorporated for the providing of payroll services. The amount of the contract increase is $300 for calendar year 2012 processing services. The new contract maximum is $19,900. Funding is available from the 2012 appropriation for Accounts and Control, Other Expenses.