THURSDAY JUNE 13, 2013, 10:19 AM
THE ITEM OF MILLBURN AND SHORT HILLS
Town wasted time and money fighting Chai Center
Editor, The Item:
I attended the Millburn Zoning Board hearing in Feb of 2012 which denied the Chai Center its Synagogue use application. I was one of the town members who spoke publicly during that hearing.
I spoke not as a proximity neighbor to the 1 Jefferson St. address nor as a member of the Shul, which I am not. I spoke out as a town resident and taxpayer for 20 years now and as someone who has spent years battling the township on another constitutional dispute which I won 6-0 in the NJ Supreme Court. That litigation cost myself and the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, so I urged the township to work with Rabbi Bogomilsky, since their best negotiating position was at that 2012 hearing. At that very moment, the township could have gotten concessions from the rabbi in exchange for approval and while not everyone would have been completely satisfied, there would have been a fair and low cost resolution.
It was obvious that the town's three-acre zoning ordinance could never stand up to Constitutional scrutiny and the way they handled the Chai Center in this dispute was going to earn them some disdain from the courts. I pleaded with the zoning board to act in the taxpayers' best interest and grant approval with conditions. The zoning board and town council acted and continued to act in total disregard to the cost this whole affair and as a result, we should ask that they reimburse the township for their irresponsible decision making and all of them should submit the resignations immediately.
I hope Millburn Township isn't foolish enough to waste more taxpayer money on appeal of this ruling and the zoning board thinks more carefully of the consequences of their decisions when the Chai Center application comes before them again as directed by the court. This has cost taxpayers a significant amount of money to this point. How much will it cost when the U.S. Justice Department gets involved? But who knows what the zoning board will do, since they are not spending their own money.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/211387281_Letter__Town_wasted_time_and_money_fighting_Chai_Center.html
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