## Facts

- Sparta and Mount Olive, each operating under a Faulkner Act form of government, adopted amendments to their municipal zoning ordinances.
- Sparta adopted a zoning amendment authorizing a Planned Unit Development after planning board review and extended public hearings.
- Mount Olive adopted a zoning amendment creating a “Commercial-Recreational” zone permitting amusement parks, benefiting private developers.
- In each township, citizen petitioners filed Faulkner Act referendum petitions seeking a public vote to overturn the zoning amendments.
- Each township clerk found the referendum petition sufficient under the Faulkner Act.
- Each municipality filed a Law Division action for declaratory judgment that Faulkner Act referendum procedures do not apply to zoning amendments.
- The Law Division ruled for the municipalities in both matters, barring referenda; the petitioners appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether Faulkner Act referendum provisions permitting referenda on “any ordinance passed by the council” apply to amendments of municipal zoning ordinances.

## Decision

- The Appellate Division affirmed the declaratory judgments in both matters.
- The court held that Faulkner Act referendum procedures do not apply to zoning ordinance amendments.
- The court concluded that the township clerks were not required to advance the zoning amendments to referendum.

## Legal Principles

- When a specific, comprehensive statutory scheme governs a subject, it prevails over more general statutory language that might otherwise reach the same subject.
- New Jersey zoning enactments and amendments are governed by detailed statutory procedures (including planning board review, notice, and hearings) reflecting a legislative choice to regulate zoning through that defined process.
- Consistent with prior authority rejecting zoning by initiative, allowing zoning by referendum would improperly bypass the zoning statute’s required procedures and disrupt comprehensive land-use planning.
- The Faulkner Act referendum power applies broadly to municipal ordinances except where the Legislature has provided a distinct and exclusive procedure for the subject matter, such as zoning.

## Conclusion

Zoning ordinance amendments in Faulkner Act municipalities are not subject to referendum because zoning is regulated through a separate, detailed statutory process intended to control how zoning decisions are made.


Township of Sparta v. Spillane, 125 N.J. Super. 519, 312 A.2d 154 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1973)