BAIS REUVEN KAMENETZ PURCHASES ADJOINING PROPERTY


Bais Reuven Kamenetz today recorded the closing on the purchase of a property adjoining their Ridge Avenue campus, FAA News has learned.


The property is Block 190.04, Lot 14, and appears to have the address 819 Ridge Avenue.




The Yeshiva purchased the nearly 23,000 sq foot parcel for $750,000.


The seller is Harry Reichman of Ridge Lake Holdings LLC.


Annual property taxes for 2023 were $8,678.24.


The Yeshiva has not yet submitted a Site Plan to Lakewood's land use boards for any specific use of this new property.


In July 2019, Lakewood Township's Planning Board granted Site Plan approval to Bais Reuven Kamenetz's application for a yeshiva - which turned out to include the Ridge Terrace banquet hall, with no notice to the public - on Ridge Avenue near Brook Road, and an adjacent 15-unit Farmer's Drive Subdivision off of Ridge Avenue.


In order to receive favorable approval from the Board, Attorney Miriam Weinstein solemnly assured the Board that "there is no developer here. This school has not had the means to provide a proper facility and the only way the school can afford now to embark on this project is by subdividing and selling these lots."


In actuality, the homes were developed by Menachem Gutfreund.


The legal notice for this application failed to mention any proposed banquet hall, which was at the time not a permitted accessory use in schools.


The New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law requires applicants to provide notice to property owners within 200 feet of the application site, and requires the notice to "state the date, time and place of the hearing, [and] the nature of the matters to be considered."


The New Jersey Appellate Division has found, in the landmark 1996 case known as Perlmart vs. Lacey Twp Planning Board, that the purpose of the notice is to ensure the public is properly apprised "so they may make an informed determination as to whether they should participate in the hearing or at least look more closely at the plans on file."


Accordingly, the neighbors filed a lawsuit alleging that besides for the fact that the Planning Board lacked jurisdiction to approve the non-permitted use of a banquet hall, the legal notice failed to "properly apprise the public so they may make an informed determination as to whether they should participate in the hearing or at least look more closely at the plans on file."


As previously reported here on FAA News, the New Jersey Appellate Division upheld the Board's approval because Ron Gasiorowski, the neighbors' attorney, didn't bother to submit the super important piece of evidence - Kamenetz's faulty legal notice!


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gasiorowski committed malpractice. He’s gotten too old to continue in this business.