04/22/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom Consultant: Mega-church not allowed
By Rob Jennings, Daily Record
DENVILLE -- Rockaway Township's zoning ordinances do not permit mega-churches, a planning consultant for a local group opposed to the Christ Church building plan testified at a planning board hearing Wednesday night.
Christ Church's attorney, Wendy Berger, countered, however, that the federal religious land use and institutionalized persons act does not distinguish between large and small religious institutions. Berger also noted the township's ordinance, which defines churches as a conditional use, does not say anything about size.
Halfway through the three-hour hearing, planning board chairman Mort Dicker tried to summarize the debate with a question to Richard M. Preiss, the planning consultant for Voices of Rockaway Township, which opposes the church plan. "Would you say that the position of the applicant is 'A rose is a rose is a rose,'" Dicker asked. After Preiss answered that he could not speak for Christ Church, Dicker said, "Your position is that a reptile may be a dinosaur or may be a lizard."
Preiss said that "uses are determined not just by the nature of their activity, but sometimes by their size."
Montclair-based Christ Church, which has 5,000 members, wants to build a 3,000-seat sanctuary, a private K-5 school and other facilities at the 107-acre former Agilent Technologies site on Green Pond Road. Wednesday's hearing at Morris Knolls High School was the fifth by the board on this case.
The debate between Berger and Preiss may be crucial, because if the planning board determines that crafters of its ordinance had not envisioned "mega-churches," defined as those with 2,000 or more members, it likely will refer the church's case to the board of adjustment.
Christ Church's pastor, David Ireland, did not testify Wednesday, but described the debate over church size as a "stall tactic" with no relevance under local or federal law.
Despite heavy local opposition to the church plan, Ireland said, "My enthusiasm has not waned," in response to a reporter's question on whether he remained committed to building in Rockaway Township.
Emily Kullmann, a township resident since 1994, explained to a reporter why she opposed the church plan. "Rockaway Township is made up of many small communities. We don't feel like being invaded by Christ Church. If it was something all the residents of the township wanted, fine. But there's 20,000 of us and 5,000 of them. It's not fair to our semi-rural lake community."
While attendance at this fifth hearing was about 250, the smallest turnout yet, "don't think our resolve is any less because people aren't coming out," Kullman said.
In a separate matter, the Agilent site is among three finalists that the township school board is considering acquiring to build a new school. School officials have said their interest in the site is unrelated to the Christ Church building plan.
