In short the DOJ has found NO basis in Christ Church's complaint that they were treated unfairly. According to the town attorney this investigation has cost the town tens of thousands of dollars.
Lisa


Rockaway Twp. cleared in church probe
BY ROB JENNINGS
DAILY RECORD
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

ROCKAWAY TWP. -- The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has cleared Rockaway Township following an 18-month investigation into how the town was handling the Christ Church building plan.

Township attorney Edward Buzak received a letter Monday signed by Harvey L. Handley, a trial attorney in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section, notifying him that the Department of Justice had concluded its investigation and would not be taking any action.

The letter, dated March 5, was sent about a month after the planning board granted final approval to Christ Church's mega-church building plan on Green Pond Road.

Handley did not immediately return a phone call today.

Buzak said today the investigation's conclusion vindicated what the town had said all along -- that it had followed all applicable laws, including the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), in reviewing the building plan.

The Department of Justice opened its investigation in Sept. 2005 -- five months after Christ Church filed a federal lawsuit against the planning board, town council, mayor and environmental commission.

The 5,000-member church dropped its lawsuit last month after the planning board, which began holding public hearings in Dec. 2003, granted final approval of the building plan.

Christ Church's pastor, David Ireland, did not immediately return a phone call today.

Buzak said the federal investigation centered on the church's application -- highlighted by a 2,513-seat sanctuary and private K-5 school -- and how it was being handled by the planning board, along with a zoning amendment approved by the council that prompted some minor changes in the building plan.

"We sent them boxes of materials," Buzak said. "They followed up with a variety of questions."

Buzak estimated that the investigation ended up costing Rockaway Township "tens of thousands of dollars."

Christ Church still awaits a state Department of Environmental Protection review of its Highlands law exemption and it is unclear when building will begin.

Ireland said last year that he expected services would begin by the fall of 2008.