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New Jersey Jewish News Story
Code violations land Randolph Chabad in municipal court
by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer
Rabbi Avraham Bechor, leader of Chabad of Randolph, pled guilty on Feb. 15 in Randolph municipal court to charges stemming from running a religious school out of his home. He has since moved the school, in which between 45 and 60 students are enrolled, to the Mount Freedom Jewish Center.
The township of Randolph issued four summonses last October to Chabad of Randolph based on zoning violations. They included failure to have a proper site plan approval, failure to have the correct zoning permits, failure to have a certificate of occupancy, and deviating from the originally approved plan. All charges but the last, to which Bechor pled guilty and for which he agreed to pay $250 and court costs, were dropped. The other three were based on the township’s original understanding of Chabad as a synagogue, but township manager John Lovell said the township has taken a more nuanced approach and is “willing to live with the residential status and more restrained operations on site.”
Several other charges based on construction code violations were filed in November and are still pending. The court date to consider these charges is March 1.
“The property is a single-family residential property,” said Lovell. “We started getting complaints, and you could see just driving by that there were large-scale activities there with 50 to 60 people at a time.” After conducting an investigation, he said, the township leveled the charges based on their findings.
The remaining disagreement involves whether or not Chabad, at 48 West Hanover Ave., is being used for purposes of assembly.
“The residential home is being used for something other than the family,” said Lovell. “We call that assembly usage. They built it as a residence, not for assembly…. Therefore, they are not meeting the [fire] safety codes or handicap-accessibility standards for the state.”
Ronald Heymann of the Mount Freedom law firm Heymann and Fletcher, attorney for Bechor, said, “Our position is that this is residential. The builder obtained a variance to build a home, and the rabbi lives there with his wife and five children…. It’s a legally conforming use.” He disagrees with Lovell’s use of the word assembly. “They want us to get a variance for assembly, but what I envision is that if we get a variance, they will then make certain building requirements, such as handicap bathrooms or sprinkler systems. These are extremely costly and unnecessary.” He cited RLUPA, the Religious Land Use Protection Act, passed in 2000, as “permitting people to freely assemble in their homes and pray without interference by the government.”
Fire safety and handicap access throughout the building is exactly what Lovell is envisioning. “This can be resolved. He has to hire an architect, get a permit, and then a [certificate of occupancy]. He is not stopped. But it does cost money.”
Both parties agreed that a minyan of up to 14 people may gather on Saturday mornings and that Bechor can hold study groups and offer counseling on the premises. Bechor is not allowed to hold bar mitzva parties at the facility, once advertised on the center’s Web site. And there is no parking permitted on a side yard, which is designated as a wetlands buffer.
Chabad and Lovell expressed the desire to take the issue out of the court. Lovell would like it to be remanded to the Construction Board of Appeals, where experts can testify with regard to assembly, and Heymann said he would like to have a chance to work directly with the township to work out their differences.
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