I think you went to a different meeting than the rest of us...The rest of us will sit back and watch our mayor and town council change the rules for conditional zoning for institutions.
quote: Originally posted by: different meeting "I think you went to a different meeting than the rest of us...The rest of us will sit back and watch our mayor and town council change the rules for conditional zoning for institutions."
that is where we are... it is now up to the town to correct the errors of the past...ommisions in the zoning laws... I am sure we will be seeing new zoning very soon that will define what belongs where...I will place a bet that it will be crystal clear that 140 GP rd is NOT going to be zoned for anything as large as CC.
quote: Originally posted by: Question "Can any changes by applied to the CC application since the application was made prior to the enactment of any changes? Any one know?"
As explained last night, it can be changed in regard to a pending application before the board.
quote: Originally posted by: RLUIPA " Federal RLUIPA trumps NJ State "Time of Decision rule"."
That's for the courts to decide - assuming cc sues after they lose. Rockaway's zoning laws are lacking. All that needs to be done is to quantify the statements made in the preamble to the conditions for conditional zoning. Our town planner said it must be done immediately, because it is too vague and is deficient (a good question for him would be - how have you been earning your money for the past 10 years and why are you telling us this now and not years ago...but I digress). RLUIPA will not "trump" as you put it "time of decision" zoning rules. When cc is denied based on the zoning laws that will be in effect when it is time for a vote (sounds like about a year from now, according to Dimin's timetable of witnesses for both sides), they will most likely sue under RLUIPA...Then, it'll be Becket vs Ms. Hamilton....Let's see...6 months in court (end of 2005 now)...another 3 for an appeal (mid 2006)....Then the appeal to the Supreme Court....wait for them to hear the case (2007-2010)...You can see, that even if cc wins, they don't have the TIME to go this route. A much better 'compromise' would be for them to find a large chunk of land that needs rehabilitating - and a town that would be HAPPY to have a church (still not decided if they are one...not until next month) come in and clean it up.
Courts will decide makes a very reasonable case for that perspective and I agree with it. That is the likely scenario and we have control over it cause we have the funds to work with (630,000 bucks per year from Agilent).
