November 23, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Mahwah Planning and zoning application fees updated by Frank J. McMahon The Township of Mahwah has adopted an ordinance that changes the fee schedule for planning and zoning applications for variances, fences and sheds, and tenant applications requiring public hearings before the planning board. The action was taken at the council’s public meeting last week and was based on a recommendation from Gary Montroy, Mahwah’s planning/zoning administrative officer. Developers, business owners, and residential homeowners are required to apply to the township’s planning or zoning boards when they are planning to develop property in the township or make renovations to their business or residential properties. Many of those applications require the approval of those boards for variances from the township’s zoning ordinances in order to proceed. The fee that is charged to process an application is currently $175 for each variance required by an application and the ordinance will change that fee to $300. According to information provided by Montroy, the cost to process and schedule an application is the same whether it contains a request for one variance or several variances, and that cost is about $300. “For example,” Montroy said, “with the present fee schedule, an application with one variance costs $175, but with 10 variances the fee is $1,750. The work actually costs me around $300 to perform, and that is why I want to change the fee to reflect my cost of doing the work, not to make money on the backs of the residents.” The current fee of $175 per variance results in a loss to the township for those applications that require one variance, but an increasingly large profit on those applications that require several variance requests. The new fee will increase the cost to those applicants who request one variance, but Montroy pointed out that about 80 percent of the variance applications filed in the township contain multiple requests for variances, while only about 20 percent are for single variance requests. As a result, the majority of applicants will experience a decrease in cost. The new ordinance does not affect the amount of money needed for professional engineering and planning services that may be required to process an application because those costs are covered by funds that are placed in escrow by the applicant. The ordinance also reduced the fee for an application for a zoning permit for fences and sheds from $100 to $50 for any size fence, and from $100 regardless of the size of the shed to $50 for sheds of 120 square feet or less. The ordinance also changed the fee for a tenant application requiring a public hearing before the planning board from $100 to $50.