Ocean County Superior Court Judge Marlene Ford has thrown out an approval granted to a Lakewood yeshiva by the Lakewood Planning Board after neighbors of the Yeshiva, represented by Attorney Jan Meyer, argued that the Planning Board had no jurisdiction over the application.
The Yeshiva, which is trying to enlarge their dormitory adjacent to their existing building, ran into opposition from neighbors in several adjacent developments, who raised a number of concerns.
The Planning Board ultimately approved the application, although they did add on a list of conditions, including that the Yeshiva construct a 12-foot fence around the new building and install frosted windows.
However, the neighbors then filed a lawsuit in Ocean County Superior Court, arguing that the construction of a dormitory is not permitted in that zone and would therefore require a use variance, which must be granted by the Zoning Board – not the Planning Board.
Today’s ruling by Judge Ford may have larger implications, as it calls into question the legality of the Planning Board granting approvals for dormitories in general.
This is the fourth time attorney Jan Meyer has challenged the township’s boards in court, and has been victorious all four times.
I guess as of right now the Judge (messenger of God) temporarily declined this application.
Things might change in the future.
We will soon find out in the future if God will give the final approval.
Chutzpa! there is a torah and we dont take yeshivos to court!
If the neighbors are not Jewish, they are not bound to Torah law.
The alteh tainah that every aveirah, including nizkei shcheinim, is muttar in the name of torah is so ridiculous and overused. Everyone sees right through it. The ends do not justify the means is a foundational principle we must all abide by.
If you have 2 kids then you can fit your family in a sedan. But if you have 10 kids you’re obviously going to need a much larger vehicle. This school has plans which are way too large for this undersized property. The fact that the neighborhood will suffer is unfortunately meaningless to the insensitive Board of this school.
The Judge strongly urged the school to try working out their differences, but they ignored her call. Their attitude is “Ani Ve’afsi oid” and the Judge saw right through the smokescreen they put up.
They always have the option to sell their property to a normally sized school and build themselves a new massive campus elsewhere. (Perhaps they can relocate to Jackson where there’s an abundance of large properties).
Thank you for a wise comment.
You chose your words very carefully.
Good Shabbos to everyone
Find me a beis din which is willing to call a yeshiva to court and or rule against them..
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BH! Torah does not come at the expense of others. They can find another location if they must have a dorm. It is not right for a board that is supposed to be representing others to only listen to the yeshiva and not the others.
@moshe, the yeshiva wasn’t taken to court, just the planning board’s approval was brought to court, resulting in the county justifiyingly banning the board’s approval. You play stupid games you get stupid consequences. Maybe the board should learn they don’t own our town (edit: city)!
Good that they got shut down they played games and didnt want to work out anything with the neighbors
They are taking over everything just like the flea market on rt70 (what a shame)😡
This whole story reminds me about the words in the Chumash, “Ochen Nodah HaDavar”.
The famous Rashi is also well known.
I agree that it is not a 100% comparison, but it is pretty close.
If we can’t get along with each other, then Hashem has no other option but to send us to Mitzraim or bring Mitzraim to us.
Correction:
Ocean County Judge denies application for Yeshiva’s planning board approval for a dorm.
Gut Voch
avraham: Your correction is incorrect. The Judge did not deny an application. She overruled a wrongly granted approval. Gut voch.
What area is this?
Didn’t the Yeshiva open before the neighborhood became residential?
No, it did not.
But regardless, their original testimony – under penalty of perjury – was that they would have “no more than a maximum of 200 students”. In fact, their approval was specifically conditioned on having “no more than 200 students.”
Had they represented at the time that they would have much more than that, they never would have received their approval at this location — and the current issues and discussions would never have occurred.
Baruch HaShem!!
Does anyone know which Yeshiva or where this happened?
I am having the same issue as a bunch of Yeshiva’s are trying to take over my neighborhood so we hired a lawyer, but the township is unfortunately more corrupt than most other towns and cities.