Christ Church plans off schedule Mayor: Stormwater management plan needs to be filed
BY ROB JENNINGS DAILY RECORD Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Post Comment ROCKAWAY TWP. -- Nearly five months after the planning board approved Christ Church's building plan, it is still unclear when construction of the mega-church on Green Pond Road will get under way.
A crucial exemption to the state Highlands law, one of more than three-dozen conditions included in the board's final resolution Feb. 5, remains under review by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The uncertain status of that exemption -- awarded to the church in 2004, but later reopened following a successful legal challenge by Rockaway Township -- may be slowing other things as well. Mayor Louis Sceusi said Tuesday he was not aware of Christ Church filing a required stormwater management plan.
"Before they can do anything else, this needs to be decided," DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said Tuesday of the Highlands exemption.
Makatura did not specify other information DEP might be seeking from the church or any deadline for a decision.
The three-year-old Highland law places additional limits on development in a zone that includes the church property on Green Pond Road.
The Christ Church pastor, David Ireland, and chief operating officer Rupert A. Hayles Jr. did not immediately return phone calls.
After the planning board approved the building plan at the 32nd public hearing last October -- the first was on Dec. 15, 2003 -- Ireland said he expected construction would begin by this fall and that church services would begin in fall of 2008.
The 5,000-member church continues to hold Sunday services at its cathedral in Montclair, which church officials have said they will consider selling if a second fundraising drive fails to raise enough money to build the mega-church.
Christ Church's building plan in Rockaway Township includes a sanctuary with room for more than 2,500 worshippers, along with a K-5 school and recreation facilities.
Christ Church acquired the 107-acre, former Agilent Technologies site in 2005 for $10.25 million. *******************************************
Well it looks like it was not the Rockaway Twp planning board who STALLED this project, it is clear now that the church is not ready to move forward . 4 years ago we cited size scope and magnitude of this project as our concerns and 4 years later it appears that these are the exact issues that are holding up their plan. In a meeting in the fall of 2003 we told David Ireland that this was simply the wrong location for this project and had he listened to our concerns he may well have saved himself and his membership millions of dollars and he would be in a location that better fits the mission of his organization.
I wonder who they are going to blame for their latest problems? Will it be the state, the feds or will it be the environment? Based on the fact that they no longer have a PR firm working this it should be interesting to see how they spin on their own.
have a nice day, Lisa
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The truth wins out over slick PR and personal attacks.
The Christ Church Plan for the redevelopment of 140 Green Pond Rd is just too big for the area.
Just back from a trip to DC with the family, from what I read of the article, it has much to do about nothing and might have been motivated by a really slow news day. The way it was written you could tell the author wrote it strictly in their spare time as it jumped all over the place. If I was the editor, I would have rejected the piece as my HS age children have written better stories than that.
