CRANFORD — The Cranford Planning Board met Wednesday to discuss the ethics and legality of its members participating in a proposed advisory committee to create a township-wide plan for open spaces and recreation. The advisory committee would include four representatives from the planning board, along with stakeholders from various groups such as sports leagues and teams, community groups, and other members of the public. Recommendations from the committee would be used to bolster the township’s Master Plan, and Board Chair Molly Kellett voiced concern over board members providing guidance on topics that they might later vote on.

Mayor Terrence Curran told the board that the advisory group is “driven by the idea of reaching out the community, seeing what they want, and then coming up with a plan moving forward with that.”

By including open spaces and recreation use in the township’s Master Plan, Cranford will qualify for grants through programs like the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Fund. Board member Steven Jandoli, who previously worked for the Green Acres program, said he would be willing to participate in the advisory committee if deemed appropriate.

Cranford is working with Graham Petto, an urban planner with the firm Topology, to coordinate the advisory committee and craft amendments for the Master Plan. Mr. Petto is also the town planner for Millburn Township and led a similar assessment of open space and recreation use there. After some continued discussion, Mr. Nordelo commented that, “for what it’s worth, Millburn Planning Board led the entire process.” Ms. Kellett responded that, “we’re not doing that.”

Mr. Nordelo went on to state that, “if we were blindly giving guidance to groups that are regularly dealing with this and are primarily interested in this, I feel like that would be a disservice to the project in its entirety.” Mayor Curran emphasized that the township’s goal is to “reach out to the community, seeing what they want, and then come up with a plan moving forward.”

Neither Mr. Petto nor the board’s attorney, Johnathan Drill, were present at the meeting to answer the group’s mounting questions. Ms. Kellett said that the board will consider making a portion of its Wednesday, May 7 meeting a closed session in order to discuss concerns with Mr. Petto and Mr. Drill.