Committee recommends Merlin Township rezoning to C3 with one‑per‑acre PDC requirement for nonresidential development

The CFP Policy and Implementation Committee on Jan. 31 recommended that Merlin Township’s master plan reexamination and ordinance 2024‑15 — which rezones just over 22 acres to the regional C3 commercial zone and adds conditional uses — be forwarded to the full Pinelands Commission for certification.

Staff framed the ordinance as a long‑running effort to add a small set of vacant lots at the edge of the regional growth area to the C3 zone; the change preserves commercial zoning but expands conditional uses (including warehouses and light industrial) and retains conditional standards for continuing‑care retirement communities. Staff said the ordinance sets residential density for assisted‑living and continuing‑care components similar to recent examples and keeps a PDC exemption for low‑ and moderate‑income units.

A notable change is the PDC calculation for nonresidential development. Staff said the ordinance replaces a complex floor‑area‑ratio‑based PDC metric with a straightforward mandatory requirement of one PDC per acre of development, applied to the total disturbance (building footprint, parking, stormwater), to make obligations easier to calculate and to ensure nonresidential development contributes offsetting PDC value.

Why it matters: Staff and commissioners described the mandatory PDC obligation as an offset where municipalities cannot provide downzoning elsewhere; it is intended to preserve sensitive management areas while allowing limited commercial redevelopment at appropriate highway locations. Staff noted there are few vacant parcels in the C3 zone capable of hosting warehouses or continuing‑care communities, so the incremental PDC obligation is intended to be both practical and protective.

Outcome and next steps: The committee moved and seconded a recommendation to forward the Merlin ordinance to the full commission; the motion passed on a voice vote with no objections or abstentions recorded in the transcript. The staff will prepare the formal report and transmit the recommendation to the full commission for decision.

Provenance: Topic intro and map (SEG 411–431); description of uses and PDC rules (SEG 472–511; SEG 596–616); motion and committee voice vote (SEG 842–864).