Both sides in synagogue dispute prepare for zoning board meeting

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

BY HARRY TRUMBORE

The Item of Millburn and Short Hills

A neighborhood association opposed to proposed plans for a synagogue at the intersection of Old Short Hills Road and Jefferson Avenue has asked the Township Committee to reconsider its settlement with the shul's rabbi, Mendel Bogomilsky, and collect the almost half a million dollars in municipal fines it forgave as part of the settlement.

James Welch and Robert Sanna, trustees of the Concerned Neighborhood Association, also known as Save Millburn, read a statement at the April 20 Committee meeting claiming that Bogomilsky has violated the spirit of the 2009 settlement. The agreement dropped municipal fines against the rabbi who agreed to file an application with the zoning board to expand the home at 1 Jefferson Avenue.

The trustees said that the rabbi instead is applying to demolish the existing structure, combine his property with an adjoining property and build a larger 16,350 square foot synagogue.

The statement read by the trustees went on to claim Bogomilsky has dragged his feet with the zoning hearings far beyond the "reasonable number of meetings" called for in the settlement.

"The applicant has intentionally drawn out and manipulated the application process to the point of making it a farce," read Sanna.

The trustees maintained the rabbi holds gatherings and events beyond the scope of the regular prayer meetings permitted by the settlement, including weddings, bar mitzvahs and bas mitzvahs, and continues to abuse the terms of the settlement "by engaging in activities that are prohibited by the township's ordinances."

Concluding their statement, Sanna read, "We therefore demand the township enforce its zoning ordinance and issue notices of violation to the applicant for unlawfully operating at the site."

Mayor Sandra Haimoff said the association's concerns would be considered by the Committee.

"We cannot say anything more," said Haimoff, "but there are points we will make with our counsel."

Sanna, emphasizing the association has no quarrel with the zoning board, countered, "Our letter points to the settlement agreement."

Before the meeting, Welch told The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, "We just want to be on the record. The settlement was not properly handled by the town. The Zoning Board has bent over backwards to be fair."

This past Tuesday, Bogomilsky and his wife Rivkah told The Item that the fines "dismissed" by the township actually totaled more than $730,000 and were bogus. They said they paid $1,000 at the time the agreement was drawn up.

The rabbi said improvements to their home on Millburn Avenue passed inspection in 1995. They requested a certificate of occupance, yet the township did not give it to them. When the township and the Bogomilskys locked legal horns ten years later when they purchased the Jefferson Avenue property, they were surprised to be hit with the fines.

"Nothing we have done to date is in any way a violation," said Rivkah Bogomilsky. "The proof is the town never sent us any summonses."

Claims that he is conducting more activities than usual, the rabbi made that point that there has been only one wedding at the Jefferson Avenue home and that even the largest attendance during the High Holy Days "is exactly the same" as past years.

"There has been no substantial increase," he said.

The Bogomilskys will be presenting a revised site plan application at the Zoning Board's meeting scheduled for Monday, May 2. In it, they said, plans for the new structure have been moved forward on the site so it now meets all height and buffer requirements and setbacks. The sole variance that will now be sought is for the 3-acre requirement for a house of worship. The Bogomilskys' property along with the adjoining lot that they will use total about 1.8 acres.

In the meanwhile, the rabbi said he is taken aback by the association's attack. He said that members such as Sanna, whom he identified as a developer himself, knew that the hearings on the matter would last beyond two or three meetings.

"He knows exactly what it's about," Bogomilsky said. The statement they released, he said, was either misinformation or "malicious."

He said he is open to addressing specific objections with his neighbors, but Rivkah Bogomilsky said the matter goes beyond one or two issues.

"They're telling us, 'We don't want you, period,'" she said.

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