New Jersey Chabad House Sues Zoning Board
A Chabad center in Woodcliff Lake in northern New Jersey is suing the local Zoning Board, mayor and property maintenance officer two months after the board denied its longstanding application to construct a synagogue on its property, calling the rejection “discriminatory.”
From NorthJersey.com:
In the lawsuit filed on Nov. 1, Rabbi Dov Drizin, executive director of Valley Chabad, argues that their civil rights were violated as a result of the defendants’ “burdensome, discriminatory and unreasonable land use regulations and intentional conduct,” which have prohibited the congregation from constructing their proposed house of worship in the borough. As a “prayer for relief,” Valley Chabad has many requests, among them, an order directing the zoning board to revise their denial of the application and grant the congregation its many variances and waivers to construct its house of worship on the said property, as well as compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.
“The most important point [is] this is about defending a constitutional principle here – the right of all of us to practice our religions without the government putting their thumb on the scale and saying that some religions can be practiced here and others can’t,” said Robert Greene, Valley Chabad’s attorney. “That’s why we did this work.”
Valley Chabad, which has been in operation since 1996, filed an application with the Zoning Board of Adjustment two years ago to construct a three-and-a-half-story outreach center that would serve as a temple, banquet hall and school on its 100 Overlook Drive property, a 1.27-acre parcel. Since then, the congregation made several changes to the site plan which included reducing the originally proposed three and a half stories down to two stories and cutting the maximum impervious coverage from 74.9 percent to 70.8 percent, among other changes.
