Yehuda Dachs will get a vote on Tuesday night on his application to add 500 cars to the James Street and Cross Street area traffic.
The reason: The Lakewood Township Planning Board is staffed by a "reckless driver."
Application SD 2511, filed under the name Yeshiva Chemdas Hatorah (but owned by Mr. Dachs) seeks approval to build a brand new residential development at the 17.5 acre parcel on the northeast corner of Cross Street and James Street with 125 duplex homes plus basement apartments.
That is 250 families, and approximately 500 cars.
This zoning district does not permit duplexes. However, as previously explained in a full background story here on FAA News, the developer is relying on a loophole ordinance the Township Committee adopted in 2018 which ultimately does permit duplexes at this site.
At their public hearing on the application, held in December 2022, the Planning Board delved deeply into the nuanced wording of the 2018 ordinance, ultimately determining that the application didn't comply with the 2018 ordinance and therefore they lacked jurisdiction to hear the new application for duplexes.
Subsequently, in February 2024, as previously reported here on FAA News, the developers of Yeshiva Chemdas Hatorah filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the Board's denial.
In the litigation, YCH Attorney John Doyle focused heavily on a letter penned by Planning Board Administrator Ally Morris in April 2018 deeming the application administratively complete.
On April 3, 2018, Ms. Morris reviewed the application and sent back a letter with a list of missing items. One of these items was that a Planned Educational Campus is permitted only to schools accredited to give a graduate degree. Accordingly, Ms. Morris directed the Yeshiva to submit proof of their accreditation status.
On April 18, 2018, the yeshiva's engineer responded with some of the items requested. Notably, proof of their accreditation status was NOT submitted to the Board (because none existed). Obviously, the lack of this item should have been fatal to the life of the application.
Nonetheless, the next day, Ms. Morris granted a prized "letter of completion."
Mr. Doyle now used this in court against the Board's determination that they lack jurisdiction to hear the duplex application - which was based on the submission of the Educational Campus application having "never been complete."
"Thus, the process regarding the status of the application was concluded at that point with it being deemed complete. There is no further statutory authority for the application to be deemed incomplete retroactively," Mr. Doyle argued in court.
As previously reported here on FAA News, back in October 2024, Ocean County Superior Court Judge Francis Hodgson agreed and overturned the Board's decision.
"It is this Court’s conclusion that this supplemental review letter by Ms. Morris constitutes a certification that all checklist items were complied with," Judge Hodgson wrote.
Board Attorney John Jackson argued that the Board's decision that they lacked jurisdiction under the 2018 ordinance was based on the Board's right to make a review and final determination of Ms. Morris's earlier determination of completion of the application.
Judge Hodgson waived away this argument, writing, "Ms. Morris deemed the application complete without any request for proof of accreditation and it wasn't until sometime later that the Board sought accreditation information."
The one thing that Mr. Dachs failed to secure in court was an automatic approval of the application. Instead, Judge Hodgson ordered that the application be remanded back to the Board so they can review it fully prior to approving it.
That is the purpose of Tuesday night's public hearing - for the Board to fully review the subdivision plan.
The Board has filed an appeal of Judge Hodgson's ruling, however the Board has not filed a motion for a stay pending appeal - which will likely take a full year or so. Therefore the Board needs to consider the application on its merits already now, while waiting for the appeal process to complete. (This means that if the Board wins the jurisdiction-based appeal, any approval of the merits of the application would also become null and void retroactively.)
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3 comments:
This is a waste of everyone's time. The property never belonged to Chemdas Hatorah. This was fraud from the beginning until now. It was never intended to be an educational complex. The plans called for structures that look like concentration camp barracks! When the board asked the applicant for Rabbi Pruzansky to come testify that this was ever legit, he didn't show. At least he has some integrity. This whole project is a farce and should be laughed out of there completely. Enough of the chillul Hashem. We all know a development of this proposed size doesn't belong in the area. Don't enrich yourself on the backs of others! Lakewood can yet be saved.
Already in Lakewood just in ten years time you see the over development, and traffic that is way out of control. I have watched the town of Lakewood just get destroyed and now it's happening to surrounding area's that are already unrecognizable.So here is the truth, the townships keep getting sued by applicants why because the planning & zoning board will not approve their stupid outlandish projects. The Judges keep on rebuking because they refuse to protect the residents from abuse by greedy developer.(The Judges don’t even know about the unpublicized proposed ordinances to legalize skyscrapers, so what happens their developer buddies all make big oversized profits.For real this is the United States of America we all grew up in.
This is going to get approved. There is nothing the board can do to stop this. The only chance they have it getting it denied is through the appeal.
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