Feds investigate Toms River's zoning laws
TOMS RIVER - The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Toms River's zoning laws affecting religious land uses, including the Board of Adjustment's requirement that a rabbi obtain a use variance to continue operating his Church Road home as a house of worship.
"Our investigation will focus on the Township's zoning laws affecting religious land uses," Sameena Shina Majeed, acting chief of the Justice Department's Housing and Civil Enforcement Section, wrote in an April 28 letter to Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher. "We are also reviewing, as part of our investigation, the Township's requirement that Rabbi Moshe Gourarie obtain a use variance in order to engage in religious worship and educational activities at 2001 Church Road."
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In December, the township's Board of Adjustment said that Gourarie must seek a use variance to continue operating the Chabad Jewish Center at his Church Road home. A 2009 revision to the township's zoning ordinance banned churches in the residential zone that includes Gourarie's property. Gourarie purchased the property in 2011.
More than 1,200 residents attended the raucous zoning board hearing on the Chabad, with many questioning Gourarie's plans for the property and saying they felt the rabbi had disregarded zoning laws.
The rabbi testified that he operates a Jewish community center at the site, and hosts a weekly prayer service that draws 15 to 20 people.
Gourarie received eight zoning violations in October 2014 for operating the Chabad in a residential zone.
He pleaded not guilty in Municipal Court to those violations, and the court proceedings were stayed pending the outcome of the zoning board application. That application has been suspended.
In March, Gourarie filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the township and the zoning board, charging that "anti-Semitic hostility" and local opposition to the township's ultra-Orthodox Jewish population are the reasons why the board required a variance for the Chabad.
Gourarie had asked the zoning board to instead allow him to continue operating the Chabad at his residence, within limits established by the board.
The lawsuit says the Chabad has become a target in spite of its "negligible land use effect on the local community and its existence at this location and another residential home in Toms River for 12 years without negative impacts."
"Substantial community opposition to both the Chabad's use and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population in general, has targeted the Chabad," according to lawyer Roman P. Storzer, of Storzer & Greene in New York and Washington, D.C., who represents the Chabad.
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In her letter to the mayor, Majeed said the Justice Department's investigation will focus on whether Toms River is in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
The religious land use act, adopted by Congress in July 2000 and signed into law later that year by President Bill Clinton, bans towns from enforcing land use regulations that impose a "substantial burden" on religious exercise, "absent a compelling justification" that the restriction furthers a government interest.
"Our investigation is preliminary in nature; we have not made any determination as to whether there has been a violation of RLUIPA by the Township," Majeed wrote.
Among documents the Justice Department asked the township to provide are:
•A current copy of Toms River's land development regulations, including the master plan, zoning map and zoning ordinances;
•Copies of any previous or superseded land development regulations that were in effect at any time from 2006 to the present;
•Copies of any petitions or applications for variances for special approval land use; rezonings, zoning map amendments, development permits, occupancy and building permits, site plan approvals, conditional use permits, or other petitions or applications to use, locate in, construct, restore, repair, expand, or otherwise alter, any church, synagogue, temple, mosque, or other religious entity, since January 2006. The township must also provide a statement about whether each application was approved or denied, the zoning district or districts concerned, and the date or the approval or denial;
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•Any petitions or applications for a use variance in any residential zone in Toms River since January 2006, along with a statement describing whether it was approved or denied, which zoning districts were affected, and the date of each approval or denial.
•Any petitions or applications for variances, rezonings, zoning text or map amendments, development permits, building and occupancy permits, site plan approvals, conditional use permits, or other applications to locate in or construct a school, college, university or other educational institution, a library, museum, private club, fraternal organization, cultural facility, theater, funeral home, community center, recreation facility, or other place of assembly in any residential zone in Toms River since January 2006. The township must say whether each application was approved or denied, including the date of the decision and the zoning districts affected; and
•Copies of all letters, emails, text messages, correspondence, memoranda, notes, resolutions, agendas, audio or video recordings, transcripts, minutes, decisions, reports, studies or other documents or recordings concerning Rabbi Gourarie, the Chabad Jewish Center, or any religious activity or application regarding 2001 Church Road.
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The Justice Department initially requested that Toms River produce the documents within 21 days of the April 28 letter.
After Assistant Township Attorney Anthony Merlino requested more time to compile the documents, the justice department gave Toms River until June 10 to produce information about the current township zoning laws and regulations, and until July 6 to compile information about other variance requests or rezonings for educational or religious uses.
Mayor Kelaher said that he could not comment on the Justice Department investigation, but noted that he's hopeful that the township will soon settle the Chabad litigation.
"I'm very optimistic that we will settle that lawsuit soon," he said.
Kelaher drew criticism in March, when he described the aggressive tactics of some real estate solicitors operating in Toms River's North Dover section as "like an invasion," in a Bloomberg News Story. Lakewood Mayor Menashe P. Miller demanded that Kelaher apologize for the comments, which the Toms River mayor insisted had been taken out of context.
Kelaher said that he had been quoting residents of North Dover, who he said referred to the number of real estate agents seeking to buy homes in the area as "an invasion" during a public hearing on a township ordinance aimed at limiting door-to-door real estate soliciting.
He said his words — and the Township Council's adoption of an ordinance banning real estate soliciting in most of North Dover — have been incorrectly labeled as anti-Semitism.
Jean Mikle: (732) 643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com