Judge's ruling due in MU building appeal
Objectors in case heard Sept. 18 say zoners violated master plan
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH - By the end of this month, the fate of Monmouth University's plans to add more facilities to its campus will likely be decided by a state Superior Court judge.

In an interview on Tuesday, state Superior Court Judge Alexander D. Lehrer indicated that he expects to rule on the appeal sought by the West Long Branch Borough Council and about 100 residents that pertains to the private university's controversial building plan "in about 10 days."

The appeal has pitted the council and the residents, many of whom live near the university's campus, against the West Long Branch Zoning Board of Adjustment, the entity that granted several use variances to allow the private university to construct institutional facilities in a residential, R-22, zone.

Altogether, four attorneys representing the various sides in the case addressed Lehrer over more than three hours on Sept. 18 in the judge's Freehold courtroom, according to Pinewood Avenue resident Joseph Hughes, one of the plaintiffs.

Represented by Long Branch-based attorney James Siciliano, Hughes and his wife, Pamela, initiated the appeal and filed their charges against the zoning board last winter.

In the courtroom, Siciliano defended his clients' stance that the zoning board violated the borough's master plan when it approved the university's application seeking to construct a three-story dormitory, a 126-space parking lot, six tennis courts, a 21-space parking lot, and a detention basin, all in areas zoned residential.

Hughes, who lives across Pinewood Avenue from where the university would place its proposed 126-space parking lot, is president of the West Long Branch Coalition of Neighbors, a grassroots group of residents living near the university and opposed to its building in residential zones.

About 100 members of that organization also joined Hughes and his wife as plaintiffs in the court case.

Meanwhile, West Long Branch Borough Attorney Gregory Baxter said he addressed Lehrer about preserving the master plan previously approved by the municipal government.

At Hughes' suggestion, the council voted 5-1 in January to join as plaintiffs in the appeal of the zoners' decision on the claim that it had violated the borough's master plan.

Unlike Hughes and his neighbors, the borough government is only appealing the zoners' granting of variances permitting the university to construct the tennis courts, the 21-space parking lot and the detention basin at the former Kilkare Farm, a vacant tract the school purchased several years ago.

Because the zoning board voted to allow institutional uses on the former farm, situated between Beechwood and Hollywood Avenue, it went above the heads of the council, the only body that can adopt or change the master plan, Baxter said on Monday.

"It's a usurpation of power," Baxter said.

Altogether, Baxter said he presented a 14-page brief in court detailing the governing body's position.

"I think we made quite a good argument," Baxter said on behalf of the council.

Named as the defendant in the case, the board is represented by its attorney, Thomas Klein, who also spoke in court at the hearing last month.

Klein could not be reached for comment by press time.

Though not named as a defendant in the appeal, Monmouth University sent a legal representative, Dean Gavor of the Woodbridge-based firm Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis, to Lehrer's courtroom.

Gavor could not be reached for comment by press time.

Speaking on behalf of the university, Patricia L. Swannack, vice president for administrative services, stated through a spokesperson that the university is "allowing the judicial process to take its course."

Aside from the issue of the master plan, Hughes said he sought the appeal because a majority of board members who heard the university's application over a 19-month period in 2004 and 2005, and later voted in favor of it, are graduates of the school.

Though Klein had initially advised the board members involved that their status as Monmouth alumni did not represent a conflict of interest, Hughes maintains otherwise.

Only two of the members who voted for the application remain on the sitting board - Chairman Rocco Christopher and Secretary Irvin Miller. Both are Monmouth graduates.

To date, construction has not yet started on any of the planned facilities.