WLB council moving toward vote on MU appeal
Boro attny.: Decision on zoners’ approval could come at Jan. 18 meeting
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — By next Wednesday night, the reorganized Borough Council might be ready to decide if they will battle the local Zoning Board of Adjustment in court over its approval of Monmouth University’s application to construct campus facilities in a residential zone.

Borough Attorney Gregory Baxter indicated in a telephone interview on Monday that he anticipates that the issue regarding the appeal of the zoners’ controversial decision will be up for discussion and a vote at the meeting scheduled for 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Borough Hall.

“I expect both discussion and a vote,” said Baxter, the borough’s longtime attorney, who was also reappointed to that position by the council during its Jan. 1 reorganization meeting.

Baxter has previously estimated that an appeal of the Zoning Board decision could cost borough taxpayers between $5,000 to $10,000.

The zoners voted on Aug. 31 to grant numerous use variances and preliminary site plan approval to the university for construction of a three-story dormitory, two parking lots, six tennis courts and a detention basin on land owned by the institution but located in a residential (R-22) zone.

The vote came after almost 19 months of hearings on the complex application. The length of those hearings could play a role in how long an appeal will take, Baxter has said.

Under the university’s approved application, the 196-bed dormitory would be located near three existing dormitories at the corner of Cedar and Pinewood avenues. A 126-stall parking lot would be situated near the corner of Pinewood and Beechwood avenues, where a small detention basin is now in service.

The tennis courts, 21-stall parking lot, restrooms and large detention basin would be located at the site of the former Kilkare Farm between Beechwood and Hollywood avenues.

Since the approval came about, about 100 borough residents, mostly residing in the neighborhood closest to the university, have pressed the governing body to file suit against the zoners on the grounds that they did not uphold the borough’s master plan by sanctioning construction of campus facilities in the R-22 zone.

An appeal, if any, would be heard in state Superior Court, Freehold Township, Baxter has said.

On Dec. 15, the Zoning Board voted to accept the resolution document detailing the conditions of the approved use variance and preliminary site plan application. The same night, the board, composed entirely of volunteers, granted final site plan approval to the university.

During the Dec. 21 council meeting, the last public session of 2005, residents supporting the appeal again asked Mayor Janet Tucci, the council and Baxter if they would fight the zoners’ decision.

At that point, Baxter replied that the decision must be published in the local press before anyone could file an appeal.

Aside from their allegations that the zoners violated the borough’s master plan by approving the application, opponents have also told officials that three board members are Monmouth University graduates, a situation they say effectively created a conflict of interest during the hearings.

All three of those board members voted affirmatively for the application and did not recuse themselves from hearings on the advice of board Attorney Thomas Klein.

However, many opponents, particularly Joseph Hughes, a Pinewood Avenue resident who is also president of the West Long Branch Coalition of Neighbors, contend that the three Monmouth graduates should have stepped down from hearing the application.

Hughes, who hired an attorney on his own to fight the application during the hearings, has stated that he will appeal the approval whether the council joins he and his wife in doing so or not.

At a Sept. 7 council meeting, Hughes presented the governing body with a petition bearing 106 names of residents who advocate filing suit against the Zoning Board.

Nearly a month later, on Oct. 5, Pine Avenue resident Fred Acerra presented the council with a petition he had generated in protest of the suggestion that the governing body sue the Zoning Board over the university approval.

That petition, bearing more than 200 signatures of borough residents, was more representative of taxpayer sentiments, according to Acerra, who later stated that his son works at the university.