Based on my reading of your editorial column on April 25, I am not sure if you just were not paying attention to the Rockaway Twp Planning Board proceedings or your column was a deliberate attempt to mislead and incite less informed readers to inaccurately take a pro-church position on those proceedings. As this would not be the first time the Daily Record has been suspected of taking a less than "objective" stance on a local issue I suspect the latter, however, based on my own past personal contact with you, I hope it is the former. In any event you do a tremendous disservice to your paper and your readers with such an inaccurate and suggestive piece.
No one, not the RT Planning Board, the Planning Board's Attorney, or any Voices Of Rockaway Twp representative has ever suggested that Christ Church is not a church. The legal distinction that the board has been wrestling with over the past several weeks may seem insignificant to some but it is an important one. Let me see if I can break it down for better understanding. The Planning Board can only rule on those applications that fit under the existing ordinances of the town. The ordinance that is being used by the applicant, Christ Church, was written in 1995 and permits the Planning Board to approve a "church" in ANY existing zone in the township as a conditional use. The question that has been debated and was asked by Mr. Dimin, the Planning Board Attorney was whether the writers of this ordinance could have imagined a "church" to include the proposed behemoth of a corporation that Christ Church is proposing, when they wrote that ordinance. Further testimony has shown that could not have been the case since the unique organizations, now commonly known as "Megachurches" did not exist in any measurable degree in 1995 especially in the northeast United States. It is not until this year that planning and zoning references have included definitions fitting these organizations, "Megachurches", that include over 2,000 attendees weekly, and experience and thrive on constant and tremendous growth and often include extensive ancillary businesses and activities. Therefore Christ Church is not a "church" in the "traditional" sense as was foreseen in 1995 when the ordinance was drafted. As such it would not fit under that ordinance and thereby not under the Planning Boards authority to approve or disapprove. In that case, the application would have to be heard as a variance by the Board of Adjustment. That is the only extent to which the definition of what Christ Church is, has been discussed. Megachurches can be extensively read about in many sources including the internet. They thrive on explosive growth, as has Christ Church, growing at an average rate of 10% per year to their present 5,000 membership. No one with any logic and sense would expect an organization to invest in excess of $30 Million dollars in a project such as this, if they didn't expect their growth to continue on an upward spiral. Once approved there is no limit that could be imposed by Rockaway Twp. When is enough, enough? When they are 25,000, 50,000 or more? Its interesting that you chose to use the analogy of a Big Mac. If you read up on Megachurches you will see that many have become so large that they have actually built their own McDonalds on the property as well. By the way, take note that the ordinance we were discussing includes ANY zone in RT, including residential. Would you support approval of such a project in the 50' lot next door to your house? No, that wouldn't be physically possible. OK, how about a smaller one with only 2500 people? How about only 1,000 or 500 or 100 people coming in and out of that vacant house next door? Municipalities have to be permitted to approve or deny each application based on its unique circumstances. The RLUIPA law that is being threateningly held over Rockaway Township's head has already been defeated in several lower courts throughout the U.S. and has several pending cases before the Supreme Court as we speak. In spite of Christ Church's attempt to paint anyone opposed to their project as racist or anti-religious we remain opposed for one reason and one reason only. IT IS TOO BIG (already). It is too big for Rockaway Twp. It is too big for 140 Green Pond Rd. and its impact, as such, would be felt by everyone in our town not just those in the immediate Green Pond Rd area. Not just that each taxpayer would in effect be forced to pay an additional average $50 per year, each and every year in lost tax revenues, but that the rest of our municipal infrastructure would be equally effected, not to mention the environmental concerns. The suggestion that Mr. Ireland has offered an "olive branch" with his recent statement in the press is as offensive as his accusations of racism and threats of litigation on national TV. Once again, apparently no one was paying attention when he offered to reduce the number of classrooms in his proposed school. He NEVER reduced the overall square footage of the project, just the number of classrooms from the proposed (75) after being hammered in the hearings that (75) classrooms was far more than would be required to support a school of (500) students. Did anyone else wonder why, after already becoming a very controversial project in the news, Christ Church would then announce the addition of (4) monstrous towers on the main building? Did everyone think that was to help smooth over people's objections or to blend in with the Rockaway Twp. community more? Of course not. It was a planned give away. They knew the towers would never be approved as proposed from the beginning. So to date Christ Church has offered nothing but a twig. The project remains too big for Rockaway Twp and too costly for the residents of this town.
but when I read his editorial, it really ****ed me off. He is normally more objective than that. It really smacked of the DR trying another one of their stir the pot up attempts at the expense of accuracy. We'll see if they have the balls to publish any of it. At least its published here in its entirety so the back seat authorities cant accuse me of all kinds of racist comments that the DR had to edit out.
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Lisa Salberg
Date:
RE: My Response to the Daily Record Editorial on Sun.
