8-10 BOXES of information arrives 2 days before the planning board meeting.  The applicant had 6 weeks to provide it, yet waits until the 11th hour.  Is this in the best interest of holding an informed and open meeting? What purpose with the meeting have as we are likely to hear time and time again 'we sent that to you, didnt you read it yet?" over and over again  - only to find there are more games being played with double talk and more twisting of the data.

Shame on you Christ Church  - is this really the way to become part of a community?  I think not.

12/19/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
Mega-church saga twists, turns

By Rob Jennings, Daily Record

ROCKAWAY TWP. -- There have been several twists in the Christ Church saga since the last planning board hearing in early October, and it is unclear what the impact might be on Monday's hearing, the 10th on the controversial mega-church building plan.

The latest is a bit of a mystery: eight cartons from Christ Church that were delivered to the municipal building on Friday afternoon, according to planning board chairman Mort Dicker.

Dicker, on Saturday night, said he did not know the contents of the cartons. He said the materials were not submitted in time for a review at Monday's hearing, which will begin at 8 p.m. at the Copeland Middle School.

Church spokesman Marc Weinstein said he also didn't know what might be in the cartons.

"It must be materials relevant to the application," Weinstein said.

Despite the 10-week gap in hearings, there have been plenty of developments pertaining to the 5,000-member church and its plan to build on 107 acres off Green Pond Road.

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The township on Oct. 18 filed a notice of appeal with the state appellate court, challenging the Department of Environmental Protection's decision to exempt the church's 303,000-square-foot building plan from the new Highlands law.

The chairman of the township's environmental commission, which is conducting a separate review, stepped aside from future hearings after the church objected to his presence at an Oct. 17 fundraiser for Voices of Rockaway Township, a citizens group that opposes the church plan.

Meanwhile, two mass mailings in support of the 5,000-member church blitzed thousands of township mailboxes last month. One came from Christ Church and the other was signed by Ted Doty, a former township mayoral candidate and school board member who frequently has sparred with building plan opponents.

Opponents criticized the church's pastor, David Ireland, for giving the media a tour of the proposed building site -- the former Agilent Technologies site -- in mid-November but not addressing more than a dozen protesters waiting outside the front gate.

Dicker said he did not know whether an architect or an engineer for the church would testify on Monday.

All of the previous nine hearings have drawn crowds of more than 120 people. The first hearing, on Dec. 15, 2003, drew approximately 1,000 people.

Christ Church's plan includes a 2,512-seat sanctuary, a K-5 private school, a fellowship hall, a fitness center and outdoor recreational facilities. The church has reached a $14 million agreement with Agilent for the property.

The plan has drawn sizeable local opposition from residents who claim that it will hurt the environment and worsen traffic.

Christ Church has countered with studies indicating that the traffic impact would be manageable. Weinstein said the church's plan would improve environmental conditions at the site.