Yeshiva Nesivos Hatorah is located on Caldwell Avenue off Chestnut Street.
At the public hearing on their Site Plan application on February 1, 2022, Lakewood Township’s Planning Board noted the size of the dining hall and 115 parking spaces and questioned if there would be a banquet hall.
Engineer Brian Flannery confirmed there would be a banquet hall.
With that in mind, the Board specifically required the roadway be paved 30 feet wide with sidewalks.
Since then, the Yeshiva has only paved the road 28 feet wide. The Township has so far granted them only a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy until they comply with the Planning Board’s condition of approval.
The developers of the yeshiva are planning to very quietly come to the Planning Board tonight to ask for permission to keep the road only 28 feet wide and still be permitted to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy.
Here is the cool part: The developers of the yeshiva have not sent notice to the neighbors of this change request.
Here is the cooler part: The yeshiva name isn't even on tonight's meeting agenda. The agenda erroneously states that Mesivta Ahavas Torah will be quietly presenting a request to the Board.
The request is being presented to the Board as "correspondence." It appears that this request violates the Board's written correspondence policy.
Firstly, the Board's Resolution of Approval stipulates that the "Applicant shall resubmit this entire proposal for re-approval should there be any deviation from the terms and conditions of this approval or the documents submitted as part of this application, all of which are made a part heareof and shall be binding on the applicant."
Typically, when submitting land use board applications, developers are require by the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law to mail legal notices to the neighbors stating "the date, time and place of the hearing, [and] the nature of the matters to be considered."
As explained by the New Jersey Appellate Division in the landmark 1996 case of Perlmart vs. Lacey Twp Planning Board, 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."
The Planning Board does, however, have a policy of accepting certain requests under "correspondence" which does not require public notice to the neighbors.
The Board's written policy states "correspondence" is acceptable for "miniscule, insignificant changes" which could really be approved administratively by the Board's professionals but the Board reviews such requests anyways to ensure that their professionals are carrying out the original intent of the board.
Such "correspondence" is considered without opening the matter for public participation.
Yeshiva Nesivos Hatorah's request to pave a narrower road - especially in light of the banquet hall traffic which the Board originally took into heavy consideration - hardly seems to be a "miniscule, insignificant change... to ensure that their professionals are carrying out the original intent of the board."
The Board should require legal notice and proper plans, and should open the matter for public participation.
Additional food for thought: Caldwell Avenue is a paper street that runs all the way through to Oak Street. The area is develop-able and this road may one day serve all the thru traffic. Permitting a narrow road now before we even know what may later be built there hardly seems like smart planning.
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