Tuesday, May 03, 2005 BY JAMIE DUFFY For the Star-Ledger
The Rockaway Township Planning Board will continue to conduct hearings on a site plan application for a mega-church despite a lawsuit filed by Christ Church, the board's attorney said last night.
The lawsuit filed against the board and its members on April 15 in U.S. District Court in Newark "will not have a chilling effect," board attorney William Dimin said in front of a packed planning board meeting.
The suit was filed after the Rockaway Township Council approved an ordinance on March 1 that could limit or alter the Montclair church's application to build a 2,500-seat sanctuary on the 107-acre site of the former Agilent Technologies at Green Pond and Meriden roads.
The lawsuit was never intended to be intimidating, the Rev. David Ireland said last night.
"Our rights are being violated," he said, adding that his church just wanted "a fair hearing" and that despite the mounting costs of the application that has been before the board since December 2003, the church is committed to the project.
Church spokesman Marc Weinstein said Christ Church had no intention of dropping the suit and that the application had been scaled back in order to meet local municipal land-use laws.
"No matter what we do," Weinstein said, "they continue to throw roadblocks at us."
Residents fear that the township's narrow two-lane roads will not be able to handle the more than 1,000 vehicles coming for services on Sunday, school drop-offs Monday through Friday and Bible study, choir and liturgical dancing practice on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Studies by Karl Pehnke, a traffic expert with Schoor DePalma who testified for the church, point to several intersections, including Exit 35 on Route 80, that would become more congested. However, Pehnke has maintained that Agilent also brought more traffic when it was operating.
Mayor Louis Sceusi, who is also a planning board member, said a bend in Green Pond Road just before the site is known as dead man's curve and that a number of traffic accidents occur regularly on the road. On the two-mile stretch between the Agilent property and Route 80, there are 25 residences.
"Some of the residents made complaints about backing out of their driveways," said planning board Chairman Morton Dicker. "Old houses didn't have turnarounds on their property."
Dicker said traffic issues most likely will be on the agenda for the next hearing on June 6.
Rockaway Township'sattorney says officials won't be intimidated
By Rob Jennings, Daily Record
ROCKAWAY TWP. - The planning board's attorney denounced Christ Church of Montclair's federal lawsuit as an attempt to "intimidate" the board, but said officials would continue holding public hearings on its mega-church building plan on Green Pond Road.
"This board is not going to shirk its responsibility," board attorney William Dimin declared at Monday's hearing, the 16th on the church's building proposal for the 107-acre, former Agilent Technologies site and the first since Christ Church filed its lawsuit April 15 in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The lawsuit, which names the planning board, mayor, council and environmental commission as defendants, alleges a coordinated attempt to target and undermine the church's controversial building plan - a contention denied by township officials.
Dimin said the board would proceed with public hearings, "in spite of threats, coercion and intimidation." He said that the lawsuit "will not have the impact the applicant is seeking it to have."
Applause for courage
Many of the approximately 150 people in the municipal building's hearing room applauded Dimin's words.
The planning board attorney, at times, appeared to be looking directly at Christ Church's pastor, David Ireland, who was sitting with church attorney Wendy Berger several feet away.
Ireland, during a break in the hearing, disputed Dimin's characterization of the lawsuit.
"We filed the lawsuit because we felt like our rights were being violated," Ireland said.
The lawsuit accuses the township of violating the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
It cites the council's March 1 vote to amend a local zoning ordinance - a decision affecting the church's plans; alleged encouragement by township officials of a misinformation campaign and a protracted planning board inquiry into whether "mega-churches" qualified as churches under local zoning.
Christ Church's building plan - highlighted by a 2,512-seat sanctuary, private K-5 school and recreational facilities - prompted heavy local scrutiny months before the first hearing on Dec. 15, 2003, and resulted in the formation of an opposition group, Voices of Rockaway Township.
Request to suspend
The group's attorney, Michael Edelson, did not attend Monday's hearing but submitted a letter advising the board to suspend the hearings because of the church's lawsuit - a suggestion Dimin rejected.
Township resident Lisa Salberg, one of the group's four founders, said she didn't mind that the hearings would proceed.
"I have faith in the board, as do all of us, that they'll do the right thing," Salberg said.
Prior to the hearing, Salberg passed out dozens of stickers with a line drawn through the word, "bullies."
"It's a general statement that the town shouldn't be bullied by someone who thinks he's bigger or tougher," she said.
Ireland said the critical reception Monday wouldn't sway him.
"I grew up in New York City. That doesn't bother me," he said.
The first half of the hearing also featured extensive questioning of Christ Church's traffic engineer by Mayor Louis Sceusi.
The group's attorney, Michael Edelson, did not attend Monday's hearing but submitted a letter advising the board to suspend the hearings because of the church's lawsuit - a suggestion Dimin rejected."
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At least someone on our side knows how to play hardball. Looks like the rest of us have, at best, played softball.
RAT...JMHO, but you've got a lot of bluster for someone who doesn't attend meetings and is missing what is going on.
If you were at the meeting last night, you would have heard VORT's lawyer's letter read into the record, and you would have also heard Lisa say she's not upset that the meetings are continuing (I'm paraphrasing...Lisa - what were your exact words?).
Again - my opinion...if you want to EARN the right to complain about OUR officials, the least you can do is watch them in action instead of reading watered down dribble fed to you by Mister 9:00 bedtime and the rest of the press and then attacking Dimin and the pb.
J
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Yeah guys, be careful. I hear momma likes to spank.
Seriously. I have to agree that proceeding isnt the best decision. I understand, and admire the boards desire not to show any weakness and to stand up to the bullies, but legally, I just cant see any advantage to proceeding with the lawsuit hanging over their heads. It allows the church to proceed on two separate fronts. Based on their own actions, they should be forced to continue consecutively rather than concurrently. First dispose of the suit then begin rehearing the application based on whatever laws, ordinances, etc. survive the legal process. I did enjoy Dimin's tirade aimed at the "gifted one".
I'm hoping that Dimin has conferred with other legal counsel in his decision. Hopefully he has and is watching his p's & q's and then will go in for the kill.
Continue the meetings and let the traffic studies be ripped to shreds.
I believe the planning board did the right thing by
Chastising cc for their premature filing of a lawsuit.
Acting as professionals and continuing the hearings.
...and I am certain that Ms. Hamilton was consulted as to what the best move would be.
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