Boro closes loophole in planning process

FRANKLIN-Developers will no longer be able to ignore site-plan mandates when building in Franklin. In order to gain permanent certificates of occupancy (CO) for new buildings, developers now must follow up on conditions of approval from the planning board. In the past, conditional approval had led to some situations in which temporary COs became permanent even if provisions of the approval weren't met. The changes are the result of a resolution adopted by the borough council last week. "The problem is that some people in the past never completed the things that they had to do for the site plan approval," Mayor Doug Kistle said. "And some people don't correct them for years." In at least some cases, borough officials explained, businesses were granted temporary COs and began operations. With no incentive to follow through on planning board mandates, they were sometimes forgotten. As an example, officials said a business might get a temporary CO during the winter months with the understanding that paving would have to be completed when the weather warmed. But after putting it off for several months, the paving might be "forgotten." "We're moving past all the temporary COs, and we (now) have a baseline to move forward," said borough administrator Richard R. Wolak. "For some reason, they slipped through the cracks and we're trying to address that." Borough officials also said that doesn't mean certain hardship cases couldn't still be accommodated by temporary COs, but that "we'd rather make them the exception than the rule."