Saturday, August 18, 2007 BY AL FRANK Star-Ledger Staff
The state Department of Environmental Protection gave the Christ Church project in Rockaway Township a major boost yesterday, ruling the plan was exempt from the Highlands Act.
By remaining within the existing footprint of the former industrial property on Green Pond Road, the controversial project was excused from the 2004 law that seeks to preserve water quality by limiting development in 88 towns in seven North Jersey counties, the DEP determined.
"Getting this exemption was critical for our project to move forward," said church attorney David Steinberger. Had the DEP ruled otherwise, the entire plan would have to have been redesigned and resubmitted to the planning board, he said.
The Montclair-based church wants to relocate to the former Agilent Technologies complex and transform it into a sanctuary for some 2,500 people and an elementary school for 350 pupils.
The board conducted nearly three years of hearings before approving the plans last October in a 7-to-0 vote, after many residents voiced concerns about the project's size, traffic and environmental impact.
While the exemption was "a critical piece," Steinberger said the church still has to hear from the DEP on pending applications for wetlands, stream encroachment and land use permits.
While church administrative offices are already operating on the site, the attorney said he could not forecast when other construction would begin.
However, a group of opponents, Voices of Rockaway Township, said no building can start until Christ Church fulfills other legal requirements.
"It may look like they have gotten some place but they really haven't," said Lisa Salberg, one of the group's leaders.
She said Christ Church will have to comply with a new state law requiring the cleanup of some 19 spots of hazardous materials on the property before building the school. Pending DEP rules governing construction near rivers and streams may also limit the project's size, she said.
Although he had not seen the decision, planning board attorney William Dimin agreed the hazardous materials cleanup was one of a number of "certain other issues" the church needed to resolve.
"Those are all things we need to deal with," Steinberger said. "We think there's a manageable approach to all that and don't think they will be impediments to development."
It was the second time the DEP exempted the project from the Highlands Act. After doing so in 2004, the township appealed and the agency then undertook a more thorough review that included changes in the original plan.
In the decision dated Thursday and released yesterday, the DEP said Christ Church qualified for the exemption because reconstruction falls within 125 percent of the footprint of the site's "lawfully existing impervious surfaces."
In a five-page letter, Terry Pilawski, chief of the bureau of watershed regulation, said the church is actually reducing the 753,351 square feet of existing impervious surface by 6,574 feet.
Moreover, its 15,442 gallons of daily wastewater flow will be less than the 16,850 gallons allocated to Agilent Technologies by the Rockaway Valley Regional Sewerage Authority.
Al Frank may be reached at (973) 539-7910 or afrank@starledger.com.
The article said that the project was exempt because it stayed within the original footprint. That was clear a long time ago. Why did it take so long for the DEP to exempt the project if that was the reason? What about the issue of removing the soil for the underground parking. Was that addressed?
I just received a copy of the exemption and a response to comments document from the DEP in the mail. I guess anyone who corresponded to the DEP on the subject will get this.
I have received nothing thus far. But, I filed my concerns online and maybe you did it via snail mail. But it does not make any difference.
If you go back on this board, you shall see that I said when the courts initially told the DEP that they had to review the exemption that they would simply put on a dog and pony show and then re-affirm their original exemption.
And, that is precisely what they did. There is absolutely no need to see any documentation from those guys. Anyone with an IQ greater than that of a pea understands why the DEP did what it did. It was completely predictable.
I am not being mean, just objective. I am just giving myself that attaboy that nobody else would give me for accurately prognosticating the outcome of this situation. I deserve that and other folks need to be reminded of that fact.
And, that emphasis really needs to be made, since the other part of my prognosticaion includes that fact that only one thing will stop this monster and that is the use of Eminent Domain. That concept has been coming from the same guy (myself) who has called everything else pertaining to this mess spot on.
Why don't you folks start listening to the guy who has been correct from day number one on this thing?
I know that you may not like me, and I really could not care less about that. But you would be screwing yourselves not to listen to my commentary on this at this point in time given my track record.
And, I will go on to further prognosticate that unless RT figures out a way to keep this thing out of here, a large part of RT will turn into a crime - ridden slum area not unlike Newark and Irvington NJ over the next 10 year period of time. That is another one that is not at all hard to predict.
Rat
ps - Ya see, I really would not care about the totally incompetitent handling of this situation but for the fact that it is directly effecting my wife and I in a very adverse way. The stupidity of other people in town is having a devastating effect on the two of us and that really gets my attention.
