TEMPUS FUGIT: No Masterplan Schedule
Planning Board Waiting on Legal Review to Have its Overdue Planning Conversation
By Nick Sodano
UPDATE: At a 2025 Council meeting, when asked if the re-evaluation of the Historic Preservation ordinance would take "weeks or months”, the township solicitor stated that it would not be weeks.
On January 6, 2025, the Township Solicitor said a review of Mount Holly’s Landuse Ordinance would happen “soon”. When pressed to provide a schedule for this review he repeated only that it would be done soon. That meeting also featured a promise to populate the town’s Historic Preservation Board as soon as the review is completed.
I attended the Planning Board meeting of January 22, 2025 and asked about the process for reviewing Master Plan recommendations by the town’s consultant ERI. Deputy Mayor DiFolco responded, "We still need to have a conversation about what, if any, of those [recommendations] we want to do". When a more specific commitment to timing for that conversation was sought, Mr. DiFolco said we must first wait for the Landuse Ordinance review.
The importance of maintaining a schedule for this work was driven home by the town’s consultant ERI in its “Master Plan Reexamination Report” submitted on August 13, 2024.
See the reevaluation report at the link below.
The report stated that:
“The Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) requires municipalities to reexamine their master plans at least every ten (10) years.” But “The Planning Board adopted its last Master Plan Reexamination Report on June 18, 2007.”
So, we are a little behind on the recommended Master Plan reevaluation schedule. And we are now four months out from the delivery of the ERI report which was meant to jump-start discussions about the Master Plan.
The Mount Holly Reporter emailed the Township Solicitor to see if a schedule more specific than “soon” could be obtained. We will update this article if we receive a reply about the progress of the ordinance review.