Chabad Neighbors Go to Court: Hope to Enforce Land Covenant

GUILFORD, CT — Neighbors to the proposed synagogue and day care center on Goose Lane will go before a judge in two months regarding a civil land use suit filed in New Haven Superior Court.

Donna Criscenzo, Sherrye McDonald, and James Colebrook, all with Goose Lane addresses, will be asking the courts to honor a written covenant on 181 Goose Lane, the Chabad property, which says the land can only be used for residential or farming use.

Criscenzo, a neighbor directly to the north of the Chabad property, says the covenant was written in 1947 by the owners of the property, the Carter-Dudley family, which at the time also owned her property and other surrounding properties.

She said that the Chabad organization and Rabbi Yossi Yaffe were aware of the covenant restricting the use of the land when they purchased the property. Criscenzo said she believed the sale was in the $680,000 range.

“The rabbi knew all of this publicly before he signed and bought the property,” said Criscenzo.

The Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline received permission in December 2008 from the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) for a special permit for a non-profit place of worship and public assembly.

Criscenzo said she asked the PZC to delay the proceedings so that she could go to the courts to enforce the civil issue.

“The town attorney said that they had only the authority to deal with the zoning application,” she said. “It is a legal issue, not a town issue.”

Yaffe and his family have moved into the house at 101 Goose Lane and have moved the Chabad organization from a rented space in Branford to a rented office on Goose Lane, according to the family.

“I am enjoying him and his family as neighbors,” she said.

But if construction of the 13,700 square foot synagogue begins on the site, Criscenzo said she will have no choice but to ask the courts for a temporary injunction.

The court date, originally scheduled for this week, was postponed to September due to the Chabad’s loss of its original litigation attorney.