The Pennington Borough Council has officially created a new advisory committee to assist the borough on potential redevelopment of properties.
The council gave their greenlight on the advisory committee after approving the measure at the governing body’s meeting on Aug. 5.
“The Council retains full authority,” Mayor Jim Davy said of redevelopment measures. “The Planning Board does not have the authority under the redevelopment law. But our intent and purpose are to have the application prepared in such a way it goes before the council and planning board.”
Members of the new advisory committee will only address items or matters that Pennington Council members or the mayor request. They are not allowed to address any matter on their own without a specific request given to the committee by council or the mayor.
Committee members advisory scope on housing and redevelopment would include investigations, approval of redevelopment designations, redevelopment plans and agreements, proposed tax abatements, and financial agreements, according to the resolution.
The committee is going to be comprised of two members of council, two members of the planning board, and the borough administrator and borough planner.
At a meeting in July, Borough Planner Jim Kyle had said that a smaller subset of the council and planning board is helpful to initially work on ideas for redevelopment plans.
Public input would also occur at the committee’s meetings.
The new advisory committee comes as Pennington Council has designated the Blackwell property and Pennington Landfill as an area in need of redevelopment.
They seek the same with a Route 31 property (2 Route 31 – Chill Properties LLC) and have authorized the Pennington Planning Board to conduct a preliminary investigation.
