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Christ Church sues Rockaway Twp.

Claims officials behind effort to derail building plan

By Matt Manochio, Daily Record

ROCKAWAY TWP. -- Christ Church of Montclair filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Rockaway Township officials claiming they violated laws that protect religious institutions' rights to build.

The suit also claims those same officials were behind local grassroots efforts to derail the church plan.

The church has been before the planning board more than 20 times for hearings on its plans for a 304,000-square-foot complex on the former Agilent Technologies site on Green Pond Road. The church is proposing a 2,512-seat sanctuary and a private K-5 school at the 107-acre site. Further hearings are scheduled.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleges the township violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, denied the church the right to free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and assembly, and equal protection laws under the state and federal constitutions, and state municipal land use law.

Both the church and David Ireland, the house of worship's senior pastor, are named as plaintiffs.

"The lawsuit alleges that Christ Church's plans for its religious mission have been unfairly thwarted by Rockaway Township officials who have engaged in unlawful conduct against the rights of the church and its members," church spokesman Marc Weinstein said Friday evening. "The lawsuit really is a measure of last resort."

Mayor Louis S. Sceusi, the entire township council, the planning board and its chairman, Mort Dicker, the township's environmental commission and its chairman, Pat Matarazzo, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

"I have, really, no comment," Dicker said when asked about the lawsuit. "All I know is they're scheduled for a hearing on May the second, I believe."

Likewise, council President Joe O'Connor, said, "I think, given the fact that it is a lawsuit, I have to refrain from making any comments."

Specifically, the suit seeks to have a newly adopted zoning ordinance rendered invalid.

The ordinance would not necessarily derail the church sanctuary or school plan, but it would likely force a restructuring of some other aspects of its designs for the site.

The zoning ordinance was adopted by the township council March 1 to clarify standards for conditional uses, such as churches, and tighten environmental rules throughout the township.

In addition to the ordinance being nullified, Weinstein said the church seeks monetary compensation.

"We're seeking damages," he said. "The amount hasn't been determined."

Christ Church filed a site plan application with the township almost two years ago, and even before the paperwork was filed, church organizers allege the township resisted them.

During a June 2, 2003, meeting, according to the church, Ireland and his engineer met with Sceusi and the township's engineer to discuss the church's building plans. Sceusi didn't object to the project during that meeting, but a month later, the church said, he did during a private meeting with the same church officials.

"(T)he mayor bluntly stated, 'we don't want you here,' and threatened to take the property by eminent domain," according to a "fact sheet" provided by the church. "Immediately following this meeting, the mayor and others began implementing a strategy to prevent Christ Church's move to the township," the suit claims.

The church also claims that part of the township's strategy to derail the plan involved the mayor spearheading a "well-orchestrated propaganda and disinformation campaign that was designed to create public outcry and an aversion to the church."

Christ Church points to the mayor appearing at a meeting of Voices of Rockaway Township, which opposes the building plan.

Ireland asked him to recuse himself from the planning board.

Sceusi, who said he remained impartial despite some concerns about the proposal, said he would not step aside.

Lisa Salberg, co-founder of VORT, on Friday night said of the lawsuit, "Laughable, ludicrous, fabricated, historical revisionists, and devoid of fact and truth, those are the notes I was writing as I was reading it." She said she resented Christ Church's implication that Sceusi was allying himself with VORT to stop the church.

"That implication is false and insulting," Salberg said. "He is our mayor. We had an issue that was of concern to a vast majority of residents. We asked him to come and talk to us. He didn't ask us to have a meeting. We asked him to come and talk to us about what was going on. He showed up. He talked. He took a few questions. He left."

Salberg said she and VORT would do whatever they could to support the township in the upcoming legal battle.

Christ Church also is upset that Matarazzo, the environmental commission chairman, allegedly attended a VORT fundraiser last October, and lent a copy of the church's site plans for the group to discuss. At the time of the VORT meeting, the commission was reviewing the environmental aspects of the church's application.

"I never attended that meeting that they talked about," Matarazzo said, adding that Lisa Salberg, who co-founded VORT, asked to see a copy of the plan because hers was unavailable, and because it was a public document, Matarazzo said there wasn't a problem. He contributed no money to the event.

"The township didn't see a problem with it, either," Matarazzo said. "It's a public document."

Matarazzo recused himself from future Christ Church meetings.

Russell Jones, a Christ Church supporter who runs a pro-church group called Residents for Truth in Rockaway, said the news of the lawsuit didn't shock him.

"From the beginning, this entire process has been difficult," Jones said. "I'm not surprised by (Friday's) action by Christ Church. The anti-church element in Rockaway Township appears to have permeated our local government and it will take the courts to sort it all out."

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-- Edited by Rational at 02:16, 2005-04-16