Gov. Phil Murphy has signed the Permit Extension Act of 2020 to extend many governmental permits, approvals and deadlines to address delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The bill, A-3919 (Coughlin, D-19)/S-2346 (Sarlo, D-36), was supported by NJBIA.
NJBIA Employment Law Resource Provider Connell Foley has provided a new blog post explaining what it means for New Jersey businesses.
Attorneys Ryan A. Benson and Agnes Antonian note that the new law extending approval for permits in existence on March 9 will remain in force until after the COVID-19 public health emergency has ended. They note, however, that in some instances, the law is unclear, particularly with regard to how long after the emergency the extensions will last.
In addition, the law will impact municipal time frames. Specifically, “the time within which a municipal agency must certify whether a development application is complete is extended to either 120 days after March 9, 2020, or 60 days after the date the application for development is submitted, whichever date is later…,” the attorneys write.
Additionally, the time within which a municipal agency must either grant or deny approval to a development application is extended by 120 days for any application awaiting certification as complete as of March 9 or pending before a municipal agency as of March 9.
