Some residents oppose suing over MU approval Resident presents petition with over 200 names opposing appeal BY SUE MORGAN Staff Writer WEST LONG BRANCH — Not everyone in town wants to go to court over the recent Zoning Board of Adjustment decision allowing Monmouth University to construct a dormitory, two parking lots, and a detention basin in a residential zone. In fact, more than 200 residents have signed on to protest any use of taxpayer money to appeal the Aug. 31 approval as evidenced by a petition presented to Mayor John Paolantonio by Pine Avenue resident Fred Acerra during the Borough Council’s Oct. 5 meeting. In fact, when word got around town that a petition was circulating to oppose a suggested appeal of the zoners’ controversial decision, residents from throughout the borough flocked to Acerra’s home to sign the document, he said. Reading from a prepared statement, Acerra recalled how the petition was originally intended just to gather input from his neighbors who mostly live on Pine and Linden avenues, Chestnut Place, Forest Street and Walnut Place. “It truly represents only 10 percent of the town,” Acerra, a retired manufacturing engineer, told the governing body when he presented the petition. “Of all the people that were asked to sign this petition, there was about a 90 percent positive response,” Acerra read from a prepared statement. The completed petition bears names and addresses of residents from South Arlene Drive, Muncie Drive and Orchard Road, he noted. “People were coming to my house to sign [the petition]. People do not want to see their tax dollars spent foolishly,” said Acerra, who also mentioned that he was present for “95 percent” of the hearings on the university’s application over more than 18 months. As for those 100 or more residents living closest to the university who have been pushing for the governing body to file suit against the Zoning Board, they can appeal on their own without getting officials and other residents involved, Acerra said. “I would hope that this city council would not entertain the thought of choosing sides or even voice an opinion as to where their sympathies stand with respect to an appeal,” Acerra read. “Remember that the members of the Zoning Board are appointed to their position by the mayor and council based on their ability and knowledge to be able to decide these issues coming before them,” he continued. “If the party opposing [the Monmouth application] believes the decision reached is improper or biased, their recourse is to file an appeal,” Acerra said. Though Pinewood Avenue residents Joseph and Pamela Hughes have led the charge for the council to sue the Zoning Board over the approval to permit construction of the new facilities on university-owned land extending to Hollywood Avenue, the council has not yet decided if it will take such action, according to Borough Attorney Gregory Baxter. The officials are still reviewing the documents detailing the Zoning Board decision, Baxter said. In the wake of the decision, Joseph Hughes, president of the West Long Branch Coalition of Neighbors, a grassroots group opposed to any expansion of the university toward Larchwood, Pinewood, Beechwood and Hollywood avenues, gave Paolantonio a petition bearing 106 signatures. All of those residents supported the Hughes’ position that the council should sue to appeal the zoners’ decision. James Siciliano, the Long Branch attorney who represented the Hughes when they objected to the university’s application, has indicated that his clients do expect to file an appeal on their own in state Superior Court, Freehold. But not all taxpayers in town share the sentiments of the Hughes or their neighbors, according to Acerra, who pointed out that the board greenlighted the application with the understanding that nine conditions be met by the university before final site plan approval is granted. Joseph and Pamela Hughes, both in attendance at the Oct. 5 meeting, continued to question borough officials about the costs of suing the Zoning Board despite Acerra’s statements. Upon hearing Council President Richard Cooper state that the borough’s municipal budget for calendar year 2005 is $7.4 million, Pamela Hughes asked Baxter how much an appeal would cost. “How much would it cost us? We don’t feel it would be a tax burden,” she said. Baxter replied that an appeal could cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. “That’s a guess-timate,” Baxter said. Joseph Hughes, meanwhile, told the council that whenever the borough has sought the couple’s support for items such as the Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) for first responders or for the public schools, he and his wife have gone along. “So when it comes time for an appeal, we want you to remember us,” Joseph Hughes said. The appeal planned by the Hughes will be based on what they and Siciliano perceive as a conflict of interest between the board and the university. Three of the board members are graduates of Monmouth University and voted affirmatively for the building plan. The Hughes have contended that those three members should have recused themselves from the hearings. However, since Sept. 7 when the Hughes first asked the mayor and council to file suit against the zoners, Baxter has indicated that the governing body still has to review the document detailing the decision. Under the approved application for numerous bulk and use variances, Monmouth University expects to construct a detention basin, six tennis courts and a 21-stall parking lot, on the site of the former Kilkare Farm off Beechwood Avenue in an R-22 zone. A three-story, 196-bed dormitory will be constructed at the corner of Cedar and Pinewood avenues near three existing dormitories, while another 126-stall parking lot will supplant a smaller detention basin at Pinewood and Beechwood avenues. That parking lot is located across from the Hughes home. The couple has stated that light emanating from the lot will flood into their windows. Other neighbors, particularly those from Beechwood and Hollywood avenues, have testified in hearings that the detention basin will flood into their basements.