Cops called to heated temple hearing in Parsippany 150 jam raucous meeting on Hindu plan
BY ROB JENNINGS DAILY RECORD
PARSIPPANY -- A raucous public hearing on a proposed Hindu temple drew 150 people on Wednesday night and quickly escalated into a shouting match between the board of adjustment's chairman and several Lake Parsippany residents opposing the plan.
Police were called and four officers rushed to the municipal building and stood by.
"Please sit down ... Don't play with me, sit down,"chairman Robert Iracane told Bob Pfeiffer after he attempted to question a witness for the applicant, BAPS Northeast, for a third time.
Richard Hayes, president of K-Vent, was testifying at the time about the "Smog Hog"-- an electronic air cleaner with chemical filtration that the temple may use to keep odors from cooking Indian food in their kitchen from permeating the nearby neighborhood.
"Our opinion is, it's a 90 percent reduction in all odors," Hayes said.
Temple opponents were skeptical, to put it mildly.
"What is your expected commission on that sale?"asked Robert Kosicki --prompting Hayes to acknowledge that the Smog Hog would cost from $10,000 to $15,000.
The temple's attorney, Robert Garofolo, raised several objections.
"Is it possible, since everyone is so concerned about odors, that we can find out how far they live from the facility?" he asked.
The proposed temple site, the Team Products International Building at 3 Entin Road, is in an industrial park near homes in Lake Parsippany.
"Do you people install the unit?" asked Glen Caron, another resident.
"No," Hayes said.
"Then it's only as good as the people who install it," Caron said.
Iracane responded angrily when Pfeiffer said that Hayes should be disqualified as a witness.
"You're upsetting me at this point," Iracane said.
Call for respect
Audience members shouted back, saying, "That's ridiculous,""Do your job," and "We live in this town -- you respect us."
Iracane then told everyone that the police were being called, prompting further recriminations.
"I would ask the board for the same amount of respect that they're giving to the BAPS temple," Shannon Cullinan said.
Pfeiffer, though stepping back, continued to make his presence felt -- sparking another verbal blast from Iracane.
"Don't give me dirty looks, Mr. Pfeiffer. You're misbehaving -- I'm not," Iracane said.
Catcalls continued until the board took a 10-minute recess at 9 p.m., prompting another deluge of criticism from temple opponents who were set to resume testifying.
Weary volunteer
Board member Michelle Jennrich appeared fed up.
"We're just volunteers and we're working people also. We deserve a break," she said.
During the intermission, Iracane said the board did not expect to reach a decision and would hold a third hearing. The first was held in August.
Though the audience appeared almost evenly split between temple opponents and supporters, none of the supporters spoke before the intermission.
Before the hearing began at 7:30 p.m., a BAPS member, Chandu Bhoraniya, said that at least 80 Parsippany residents who currently travel to religious services in Edison and Clifton were hoping to use the Parsippany temple.
"Anybody who has reservations about traffic -- they're not informed," said Bhoraniya, referring to an objection raised by opponents.
"There are no traffic implications. Maybe they're opposing our freedom of worship. If they knew enough, they wouldn't oppose," Bhoraniya said.
In order to build, BAPS will need several variances. The industrial park is in a special economic development district, where houses of worship are not among the allowed uses.
Precedent feared
"Once you start changing for one, then you can start changing for everybody. That's not the way it was meant to be," George Marone, a Lake Parsippany resident, said before the hearing.
In addition to providing an Assembly Hall with 636 seats that would operate on Sunday afternoons, the two-story, 44,313-square-foot building at the site would be renovated to accommodate conference rooms and multipurpose areas, according to the application.
There would be at least 208 parking spaces, along with a small residence for the Pujari, which Bhoraniya said is the equivalent of a priest and the head of the Assembly.
Asked to describe BAPS -- the name stands for Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha -- Bhoraniya said, "I would compare it to Habitat for Humanity, or any church that reaches out to the community."
Number of worshipers
After Hayes testified, Garofolo called engineer Joseph Staigar to discuss the traffic impact.
Staigar estimated that 225 people would attend services on 48 Sundays during the year, growing to 285 people on "three semi-High Holy Days" and to 500 on "one High Holy day" in November.
