By Rob Jennings, Daily Record

ROCKAWAY TWP. - Christ Church is reducing the proposed size of two religious towers and its fellowship hall - two concessions to a new local ordinance that the church recently called unconstitutional in a federal lawsuit.

"It's as far as we're going to go. The ball is in the township's corner at this point," Christ Church spokesman Marc Weinstein said on Thursday.

Other aspects of the mega-church building plan that run afoul of the ordinance, including a parking deck, were left unchanged in revised plans submitted two weeks ago, planning board chairman Mort Dicker said on Thursday.

"The revised building plan does not address the parking deficiencies that the new ordinance created," Weinstein said.

Dicker said that the height of two towers atop the church sanctuary would be reduced from 100 to 65 feet and that the size of a 600-seat fellowship hall would also be reduced - though neither he nor Weinstein knew by how much.

The revisions may come up at Monday's public hearing, the 17th since Dec. 2003 on Christ Church's plans for a 2,512-seat sanctuary, private K-5 school and other facilities at the 107-acre former Agilent Technologies site on Green Pond Road.

Christ Church filed a federal lawsuit on April 15, six weeks after the council approved a zoning ordinance clarifying standards for conditional uses, such as churches, and tightening environmental rules throughout the township.

The lawsuit charged that the ordinance was the latest in a series of tactics aimed at derailing the 5,000-member church's building plan - a claim later denied by township officials.

Dicker said the church's recent modifications dispel the notion that a courtroom showdown in the highly charged case is inevitable.

Dicker said none of the defendants named in Christ Church's lawsuit - Mayor Louis Sceusi, the planning board, the council and the environmental commission - had been served with legal papers.

"We didn't think there was really a need for litigation," Dicker said.

"Perhaps that part of it will go away."

Weinstein, though, said the revisions did not signal any weakening in the church's position - that the township's handling of its building plan had violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, as well as the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

"The church has every intention of pursuing legal action against the township," said Weinstein. He added that it had up to 120 days from the time of filing the lawsuit to serve legal papers on the defendants.

Dicker theorized that Christ Church might seek to partially accommodate the ordinance while pursuing variances for non-compliant items, such as the parking deck.

"They're trying to comply with the ordinance. Where they don't, I assume they'll ask for a variance," Dicker said.

Sceusi said he didn't know what to make of the church's latest move.

"I don't know what their plan is," the mayor said.

Lisa Salberg, co-founder of Voices of Rockaway Township, said she didn't understand why the church is willing to make some changes, but not all, required under the new ordinance.

"It doesn't make sense," said Salberg, whose group formed in 2003 to oppose the church building plan.

Monday's hearing will begin at 8 p.m. at the municipal building and is expected to largely focus on traffic testimony from the church, Dicker said.

Opponents of the proposed mega-church have charged that it would create a huge traffic problem, hurt the environment and deprive the township of a lucrative business property.

Christ Church has said that its plan includes an environmental cleanup, and that the traffic impact would be manageable. The church also has noted that the planning board is not legally allowed to consider lost tax revenue.

"We've gone more than halfway trying to appease the township's concerns about the project," Weinstein said.

Rockaway Township is challenging in state appellate court a decision by the Department of Environmental Protection exempting Christ Church from the new Highlands law, which places strict requirements on development in a wide region that includes the Agilent site.