On Monday, July 10, the Rockaway Township Planning Board held its 30th meeting on Christ Church’s proposal for a 2,522-seat sanctuary and private K-5 school to be built on Green Pond Road. Hearings have been under way since December 2003.
Christ Church now holds five Sunday services in its 900-seat cathedral on the corner of Church Street and Trinity Place in Montclair. Membership has grown from several hundred members in 1986 to its current 5,200 members, which eventually necessitated overflow rooms where congregants watch Sunday service on large-screen televisions.
When even the overflow rooms filled to capacity, the church sought to purchase land on which to build a larger facility. Last August, the church paid Agilent Technologies $10.2 million for approximately 100 acres of land on Green Pond Road in Rockaway Township.
Christ Church’s pastor, the Rev. David Ireland, said he and church members are praying and hoping for the best. The church maintains that Rockaway Township officials have created roadblocks to prevent the mega-church from building its proposed facility. In April 2004 the church filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court, claiming that Rockaway was violating the church’s right to practice its religion.
Rockaway Township Business Administrator Steven Levinson said that’s not the case, but declined to comment further, explaining the matter is a Planning Board issue.
Marc Weinstein, spokesman for Christ Church, claimed the township came up with a series of objections including questioning an already granted state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) exemption and an inquiry into noise regulations.
During the July 10 meeting, about 20 residents addressed the Rockaway Planning Board, every one of them in opposition to the plan, according to Lisa Salberg, co-founder of Voices of Rockaway Township, a group that opposes the project.
“If it were Wal-Mart or Ikea, or a house of worship of any kind, we would still be opposed to it,” said Salberg. “Rockaway Township has 22,000 people and [Christ Church members] are 5,000 people. Can you imagine that large a percentage of people going anywhere? We just don’t have the infrastructure for it.”
Weinstein said the church has done everything it can and is hoping a decision will be rendered at the Planning Board’s next meeting on Sept. 11.
Hey ireland - - - my wife and I are also "praying and hoping for the best". I am confident that "the best" should never involve your so called church locating into our township!
"Weinstein said the church has done everything it can and is hoping a decision will be rendered at the Planning Board’s next meeting on Sept. 11."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The church has done everything it can" (to turn 99.9% of the town against it.)
Yes Whiney "a decision will be rendered", DENIED! Then upheld in court 6 years from now. I wonder if they will keep you on the payroll or use whatever money they have left for legal fees, propery taxes and utility bills for the 10 employees at 140 GPR. Perhaps you should create a new propaganda mailer before the vote to squeeze one last payment from them.
