Photo Credit: APP
Phew, that sure was a close one!
Cong. Toras Emes sent legal notice to their neighbors that they are seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval from Lakewood’s Planning Board "for the purpose of constructing improvements to an existing elementary school building."
The legal notice did not mention any proposed banquet hall.
The site plan for application # SP-2564 indicates that 118 new parking spaces will be provided.
Hmmm...
All that just for "constructing improvements to an existing elementary school building?"
A review of the architectural plans depicts a women's entrance, coatrooms, and separate restrooms in the basement adjacent to a large dining room.
Is the 118 new parking spaces for a secretly planned banquet hall?
That would be problematic for two reasons:
1) The site is located in the R-12 residential zoning district. The banquet hall ordinance enacted in December 2022 permits banquet halls in schools only in non-residential zoning districts.
2) The Township sold the two parcels to Toras Emes with deed restrictions which restrict banquet halls.
When someone wants to buy land from the Township, they need to get an appraisal of what the land is worth. The appraisal looks at the "best use" for the property based on all of the uses permitted in the zone and appraises the price as such.
When land can be used for many houses, the value of the land goes up.
A way to work around this high appraisal is by placing a deed restriction on the land so that it can only be used for specific purposes and this makes the appraisal go down as banks will look at the property at a lesser value (because if they ever need to foreclose and sell the property they are bound to the deed restriction and they can't sell it for a more valuable use).
The subject application is for Block 368 Lot 1 and Block 370 Lot 1. The Township sold Block 368 Lot 1 to Toras Emes "for school purposes only," and Block 370 Lot 1 for "educational purposes only." These deeds include clauses that if the property is ever used contrary to the restricted use, "title to the property automatically reverts back to the Township of Lakewood."
Either way, the Planning Board's application requires developers to submit a copy of all deed restrictions to the Board. It is troubling that the developers of Toras Emes did not submit a copy of their deed restrictions to the Board.
At the public hearing on Tuesday night, Board Member Eli Rennert questioned if a banquet hall was proposed. Attorney Adam Pfeffer responded "no."
At that point, Aaron Hirsch spoke up and pointed out the women's entrance, coatroom and separate restrooms in the basement lobby adjacent to the large "dining room."
Mr. Hirsch added that the site is located in the R-12 residential zoning district and the banquet hall ordinance enacted in December 2022 permits banquet halls in schools only in non-residential zoning districts.
Board Chairman Moshe Neiman responded, "banquet halls for Shabbos use only are important in this part of town. We can give an allowance here for this."
At that point Mr. Hirsch mentioned the deed restriction which precludes even a Shabbos use only banquet hall. Mr. Hirsch added that the deed restriction permitted the school to purchase the property at a lower cost, therefore they should not now be permitted to skirt the restrictions which they previously agreed to.
The Board thanked him for his comments and stated "either way, they represented that there is no banquet hall in their application so we will grant an approval with no banquet hall."
Mr. Neiman then quickly asked for a motion on the application.
Notably, the Board rushed to grant their stamp of approval and move on - without bothering Adam Pfeffer to explain the purpose of the women's entrance, coatroom and separate restrooms in the basement lobby adjacent to the large "dining room.
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3 comments:
Sounds like a strong case for Pfeffer to be charged with perjury.
Pfeffer did the same thing for Bnos Yaakov on Kent Rd. Stated over and over again that there was no plan at the present time to have a hall. I spoke up first and asked the planning board that if that was true why was the school collecting sponsorships on their website for the hall? To this day the website is still operational and collecting for the hall bnosyaakovnj.org. Every board members head snapped to attention with that as they asked me the website address. Yet here we are 2 1/2 years later with a fully operational hall that no government official seems able or willing to shut down.
The more we watch this circus the more obvious it is that these board members need to be investigated by the feds or state for being on the take to give their vote. There's no reason why these board members act this way if not for being on the take.
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