It's now a violation of a court Order for patrons of the Lake Terrace banquet hall to park along the adjacent roads including Oak Street and Paco Way.
As previously reported here on FAA News, (https://www.faanews.com/2022/07/update-judge-fines-lakewoods-lake.html), there has been an ongoing year-and-a-half long legal land use saga regarding the famous Lake Terrace wedding and concert hall in Lakewood which began after Clayton Associates, an industrial neighbor, filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down Lake Terrace after discovering that Lake Terrace never received Township Zoning Board approval to build a wedding hall.
On February 2, 2021, Ocean County Superior Court Judge Marlene Ford signed an Interim Order permitting Lake Terrace - pending the outcome of the lawsuit - to continue hosting weddings, but with certain restrictions including limiting the occupancy to 712 seated guests, barring any outdoor activities or events on the banquet hall property, and requiring all parking to be maintained on-site only.
Judge Ford signed this Order as a interim compromise to permit Lake Terrace to continue operating while the lawsuit continues, but with restraints.
Since the onset of this lawsuit, claiming that Lake Terrace and Greenwald Caterers have violated the February 3, 2021 Order, Clayton Associates has made several attempts to get Judge Ford to shut down Lake Terrace completely.
At the last hearing on July 8th, Judge Ford declined to completely shut down Lake Terrace, but she did find them in violation of the court order and she sanctioned them $5,000 plus the legal fees incurred by Clayton in filing the motion. Judge Ford also ordered that no further outdoor events or gatherings of any sort at all take place outdoors within 1,000 feet of Lake Terrace.
As is typical in motion hearings, shortly after the hearing, the attorney for the Plaintiff submitted a proposed Order for the judge to sign.
The proposed Order, drafted by Toms River Attorney Robert C. Shea stated that
"the February 3, 2021 Order shall remain in full force and effect, and is hereby clarified as follows:
1) There shall be no outdoor events held on or around the property or on adjacent properties or roadways. This shall include any and all events ancillary to or associated with any events which are taking place inside the banquet hall.
2) All parking is to be limited to the parking lot at 1690 Oak Street. There shall be no parking for events taking place on the property allowed on the adjacent streets, including but not limited to Oak Street or Paco Way or in the surrounding private parking lots.
Ordered that KBS and Lake Terrace are to make any and all parties hosting, attending, or otherwise involved in any and all events, including but not limited to, caterers, organizers, event contractors etc., aware of the above restrictions."
Immediately after this proposed Order was circulated, attorneys for Lake Terrace and Greenwald Caterers submitted letters begging the judge not to sign the Order as proposed, noting that the Township Committee has not adopted any ordinance prohibiting parking along these roads. They even went so far as to claim that "only the Township Committee can regulate parking along their roads" and that it is "not up to the judge to make such a restriction".
Township officials used taxpayer funds to jump on the bandwagon on behalf of Lake Terrace.
Attorney Danielle Rosiejka on behalf of Lakewood Township submitted the following letter to Judge Ford:
"The Township’s concern with this language relates to the enforcement of prohibiting specific individuals (attendees of Lake Terrace events) from parking on a public street.
"It is the Township’s position that enforcement relating to the confinement of parking to Defendant Lake Terrace’s lot be placed fairly on Defendant Lake Terrace and Defendant Greenwald Caterers as the Township cannot be in the business of questioning citizens why they are parked on a public street as it would expose the Township to liability that they were unfairly targeting a specific group.
"We respectfully request that any order relating to parking for Lake Terrace events make clear that it is the responsibility of Defendant Lake Terrace and Defendant Greenwald to ensure that their patrons/guests confine their parking to Defendant Lake Terrace’s parking lot.
"In the event that the Court includes language in its order restricting parking, the Township proposes the following language: All parking for Defendant Lake Terrace events shall be limited to the parking lot of 1690 Oak Street. Defendant Lake Terrace and Defendant Greenwald Caterers shall take steps to ensure that that their patrons confine their parking to the 1690 Oak Street parking lot."
Judge Ford has now formally signed the Order, as proposed by Attorney Shea on behalf of Clayton Associates, with the addition of the following words: "Defendant's shall erect signage directing all parking on their lot for events."
As such, it is now formally illegal, under court Order, for patrons of events at Lake Terrace to park along the adjacent roadways.
As previously reported here on FAA News, (https://www.faanews.com/2022/07/lawsuit-again-seeks-to-shut-down.html), just mere couple of weeks after the July 8th hearing, Clayton Associates filed yet another Motion to Enforce Litigants Rights seeking to completely shut down Lake Terrace.
In this latest filing, attorneys for Clayton provided photos and videos from their surveillance camera footage showing that, just 2 days and 4 days after the July 8 hearing, Lake Terrace hosted events with parking overflowing onto both sides of Corporate Road West, "creating a dangerous situation in that a truck driving down the road was forced to drive extremely slowly and carefully to ensure it did not side swipe any vehicles." Clayton also claims that banquet hall patrons illegally parked in their property parking lots as well as at Bnos Brocho which is also a violation of the court order.
Attorney Shea notes in his motion filing that attorneys for Lake Terrace have previously told the judge that they already filed an application to the Zoning Board and that they will "seek to expedite their application", however, since then, "we haven't seen any progress in getting the Zoning Board to hear this application any sooner."
Attorney Shea emphasizes in his motion filing that "simply ordering monetary sanctions against Lake Terrace is insufficient as they just received a monetary sanction at the last hearing and yet, 'here we are here again'". As such, Mr. Shea's proposed order is that "any and all Certificates of Occupancy are hereby revoked;" and that the Defendants are to "immediately cease all activity on the property located at 1690 Oak Street until such time as they have received all requisite, non-appealable, approvals and complied with all conditions thereof".
Lake Terrace and Greenwald Caterers have submitted objections to the Motion.
Judge Ford has scheduled oral arguments for Friday August 26.
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2 comments:
The owner of Lake Terrace is out for revenge. Forget the fact that he got caught violating the ordinance and harming neighboring businesses. Forget the fact that he's blatantly violating a court order because a fine of a couple thousand dollars doesn't mean anything to him. He's angry that he can't keep getting away with his games. So, he hired an attorney to jerk around the plaintiff and submit a frivolous and meritless objection to the plaintiff's recent planning board application for an extension of an already-approved subdivision. This is just so ridiculous. MS should just admit that he's wrong and start playing by the rules.
It's probably best to avoid booking a wedding at Lake Terrace if he'll get shut down. Why couldn't he just do things properly?? Applying for an elementary school and then quietly converting the place to a full-fledged banquet hall is too much shtick and is wrong to the neighbors.
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