(a) The township council may adopt or amend an ordinance providing for zoning and relating to the nature and extent of the uses of land and the buildings and structures thereon. Such ordinance shall be adopted after the planning board has adopted a land use element of a master plan and all of the provisions of such zoning ordinance or any amendment or revision thereto shall be either substantially consistent with the land use plan element or designed to effectuate such element. The an amendment or revision thereto which, in whole or in part, is inconsistent with or not designed to effectuate the land use plan element, but only by an affirmative vote of a majority of the full authorized membership of the township council, with the reasons of the township council for so acting recorded in its minutes when adopting such an ordinance. The ordinance providing for zoning shall be drawn with reasonable consideration to the character of each district and its peculiar suitability for particular uses and to encourage the most appropriate use of land. The regulation for zoning in the ordinance shall be uniform throughout each district for each class or kind of buildings or other structures or uses of land, including planned residential development and residential cluster, but the regulations in one district may differ from those in other districts.

(b) No ordinance providing for zoning and no amendment or revision to any such ordinance shall be submitted to or adopted by initiative or referendum. (Code 1988, § 175-202)

A.protest against any proposed amendment or revision of the zoning provisions of this chapter may be filed with the township clerk, signed by the owners of 20 percent or more either of the area of the lots or land included in such proposed change or of the lots or land extending 200 feet in all directions therefrom, inclusive of street space, whether within or without the township. The revision or amendment shall not become effective following the filing of such a protest, except by the favorable vote of two-thirds of all the members of the township council. (Code 1988, § 175-203)

Prior to the hearing on adoption of an ordinance providing for zoning or any amendment thereto, the township council shall refer the proposed ordinance or amendment thereto to the planning board pursuant to section 62-2611. (Code 1988, § 175-204)