With the termination of daily print publications for the state’s largest newspaper, The Star Ledger, there’s going to be a potentially overlooked ripple effect for real estate developers, according to one of the industry’s legal experts.
That’s due to the fact that as print publications dwindle, there’s less options for keeping the public apprised of the development and zoning process. Doing so isn’t just a kind gesture, either – it’s legally required.
So, when the publisher of The Star-Ledger announced on Oct. 30 that the print publication of the state’s largest newspaper would be discontinued after a nearly 200-year run, Kathryn Razin took it as more than a sign of the times in the media business. …
And, certainly, she says, it was that. But for Razin, a senior associate with Paramus-based Wells, Jaworski & Liebman, LLP, it was also an event that would have serious implications from a land use and zoning standpoint.
That publication – along with other publications ceasing print publication, including The Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times – has long fulfilled New Jersey-specific statute requirements for municipalities and developers, she said. The Star-Ledger has been the designated paper for notices of upcoming meetings and hearings on developments, ordinance adoptions and zoning changes.
There’s going to be changes to where developers and municipalities are obligated to post those notices moving forward, Razin said. And the increasingly limited selection of print publications in the state will put a strain on those following these statutory requirements in coming years.
“For now, you have to be diligent to make sure that when that publication you’re providing a notice is still going to be in print,” she said. “You also have to double check that the municipality hasn’t designated a new ‘official newspaper’ (through a resolution or ordinance).”
The immediate step Razin is advising clients to take is to consult their municipality board secretaries to make sure they’re still publishing notices in the correct paper.
Down the line, she suggests there’s going to be a need to review whether relevant notice statutes should be amended to allow electronic publication of legal notices on a newspaper’s website or through other digital publications.
“I think this has raised discussions on that statutory requirement, and whether we should be allowing a newspaper’s website to satisfy these requirements in lieu of a print publication,” she said. “From an applicant’s standpoint, this has been a long-standing requirement and could be seen as antiquated and in need of an update, alongside other statutory requirements.”
Such a change could allow municipalities and other agencies to comply with notice requirements in a potentially more cost effective and efficient manner, she added.
“But until that change happens, and hopefully it does, it’s on developers, land use attorneys and municipalities to keep up with what’s happening in terms of the elimination of print publications,” she said.
