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Howell Properties2/13/2002
itled to compensation. See High Horizon Dev. Co., supra, 120 N.J. at 48- 49; State, Comm'r of Transp., supra, 244 N.J. Super. at 223-24. No case has considered the reasonableness issue in the context before us, where neighboring municipalities have landlocked property by the vacation of streets.
The second principle implicated is a municipality's unquestioned legislative authority to regulate property within its boundary lines by the exercise of its power to zone. Bow & Arrow Manor, Inc. v. Town of West Orange, 63 N.J. 335, 345 (1973). The exercise of that authority, of course, must advance one of the purposes of the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL), N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2, Riggs v. Tp. Long Beach, 109 N.J. 601, 611 (1988), including consideration of the general welfare of neighboring municipalities. N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2d.
The third principle is that any municipality may enact an ordinance to vacate a public street. N.J.S.A. 40:67-19.
Whenever there shall have been a dedication of lands as a public street or highway or a public square or public place, and the same has not been accepted or opened by the municipality, and it shall appear to the governing body that the public interest will be better served by releasing those lands or any part thereof from such dedication, the governing body may by ordinance release and extinguish the public right arising from said dedication as to the whole or any part of those lands, and thereupon said lands or the part thereof so released shall be effectually discharged therefrom as though the dedication had not taken place; but only after notice of the intention of the governing body to consider any such ordinance, and a hearing thereon, shall have been given as provided in section 40:49-6 of this title concerning ordinances for the vacation of streets. [N.J.S.A. 40:67-19 (emphasis added).]
Plainly, the controlling criterion under the statute is whether the vacation of the street will serve the "public interest." Pyatt v. Mayor & Council of Dunellen, 9 N.J. 548, 553 (1952); see also 11 McQuillin Municipal Corporations ยง30.185 (3rd Ed. 2000) ("In the vacation of streets the public interest and conveniences is the prime consideration . . . ."). "To that inquiry whatever is relevant for or against the proposed closing and bears upon the public interest in the particular circumstances ordinarily not only may, but should, be considered." Pyatt, supra, 9 N.J. at 553. Our function is confined to a determination whether factors other than the public interest and welfare have influenced the governing body's legislative action. Ibid. While the vacation ordinances, in another setting, might be a valid exercise of municipal power, "they must be viewed in the light of the present factual context, in order to ascertain the quality of those acts." Palisades Properties, Inc. v. Brunetti, 44 N.J. 117, 132 (1965).
We are convinced that, in deciding what is in "the public interest," courts should not confine themselves exclusively to the parochial interest of the municipality invoking its power to vacate. Opinions in the land-use context have emphasized the obligation of a municipality to consider the welfare of the region when the governing body exercises its legislative authority. Southern Burlington Cty. N.A.A.C.P. v. Township of Mount Laurel, 92 N.J. 158, 238 (1983) ("zoning in accordance with regional considerations is not only permissible, it is mandated"); Quinton v. Edison Park Dev. Corp., 59 N.J. 571, 578 (1971); Urban Farms, Inc. v. Borough of Franklin Lakes, 179 N.J. Super. 203, 213 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 87 N.J. 428 (1981). "The insularity and parochialism of the Chinese wall theory of municipal zoning has long since been discr
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