Group Wants Township to Enforce Zoning Law

Concerned Citizens Group Read Letter to Township Committee regarding Chai Center

By Laura Griffin April 21, 2011

Millburn-Short Hills Patch

Trustees from the Concerned Neighborhood Association of Millburn Township, read a letter to the board of adjustment outlining the group’s position that Chai Center for Jewish Living’s continues to violate zoning laws.

Jim Welch and Bob Sanna, trustees of the organization also known as Save Millburn that they say represents 150 supporters, took turns reading the letter, demanding that the Township enforce its zoning ordinances and noting that the town has forgiven $499,000 in fines “that belongs to the taxpayers.”

After a year of delays and continued use of the property by the Chai Center, Welch and Sanna said, the Center’s treatment of zoning board and the town as a whole is “abusive.”

“While the law as well as the Settlement permits [the Chai Center] to hold prayer meetings at the home, the applicant is prohibited from increasing materially their frequency and scope. Despite this clear prohibition, the Applicant has admitted under oath to hosting weddings, bar mitzvahs, bas mitzvahs and other gatherings and events far beyond the intendment of the Settlement,” the letter states. The Chai Center’s delays continue “abusing the Settlement terms by engaging in activities that are prohibited by the Township’s ordinances. [Chai Center] has intentionally drawn out and manipulated the application process to the point of making it a farce.”

Rabbi Mendel Bogomilsky was not at the meeting last night, but said today that the concerned citizens group has been responsible, in part, for the delays. He also said his lawyers are going to file a letter with the Township Committee in response to the letter filed last night.

“They are getting and disseminating misinformation which they are passing on to the township committee and the public,” Bogomilsky said. “Nothing that we’re doing falls within violation of township ordinances. The proof is they have not issued us any violations of any zoning laws.”

The April Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting on the Chai Center was postponed until May 2, so the Chai Center could revise its plans.

The proposal for a 16,350-square-foot structure containing a 144-seat synagogue, library, social room, and several multi-purpose rooms on 1.8 acres of residential property would replace two single-family homes currently on  adjacent lots.

The letter read by Sanna and Welch, states that no matter how long the Chai Center stalls, the property will remain non-conforming and demands that the town do something about it.

“The continuous delaying tactics would seem to allow the Chai Center to continue its unlawful use of the property until the town has the courage to stop it. We question The Chai Center tactics and legality of operation and also the settlement the Township Committee made including forgiving $499,000 in fines that belong to the taxpayers.

“On behalf of The Concerned Neighborhood Association of Millburn Township, we therefore demand the Township enforce its zoning ordinance and issue notices of violation to the Applicant for unlawfully operating at the site. We trust that Township Committee will take steps to give all Township residents fair treatment under the law.”

Mayor Sandy Haimoff thanked Welch and Sanna for reading the letter and said she would have the township’s attorney take a look into it, but it was a matter in which she could not comment.

A year ago, Bogomilsky, testified for hours over a couple of meetings. At the first Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting on the proposed synagogue on residential property on Jefferson Avenue, nearly 200 residents gathered with supporters of the Chai Center sporting buttons reading "Let My People Pray" and the opposition wearing red stickers shaped as stop signs that read, "Stop Major Zoning Exceptions."

At the upcoming meeting May 2, the Chai Center will outline the revisions made to the plans, Bogomilsky said.

“There’s not much to the revisions,” he said. “We moved the house a little further away from the neighbors to create bigger buffers, but the parking lot remains the same.

“If they want to speed up this process," he said. "They will listen to the plans and let us get on with it without all the endless questioning."