March 2, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 5 Mahwah Council appeals judge’s ruling on wellness centers by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Council has filed an appeal of Superior Court Judge Estela M. De La Cruz’s ruling that invalidated a 2009 township ordinance. That ordinance added health and wellness centers and fitness and health clubs as permitted uses in the township’s GI-80 general industry and IP-120 industrial park zoning districts. Mahwah Township Administrator Brian Campion advised that the details of the case will not be known until briefs are submitted to the Appellate Division of Superior Court sometime in the future. Those briefs will explain the reasons the township believes Judge De La Cruz’s ruling should be overturned. Associate Township Counsel Andrew Fede has been authorized to represent both the township council and the township’s planning board in the appeal. In 2007, the township tried to add health and wellness centers and fitness and health clubs as permitted uses in the township’s industrial zones, and adopted an ordinance to do so. That ordinance was challenged by Mahwah Realty Associates, the landlord of the New York Sports Club located on Leighton Place in the Fardale section of the township, and TSI Mahwah, LLC, the owner of the New York Sports Club. That ordinance was invalidated by former Superior Court Judge Jonathan N. Harris in May 2009 on procedural grounds. Harris found that the township failed to give adequate and proper notice to all interested and affected parties in the B-40 business zone because township officials did not recognize that the addition of these two uses in the IP-120 industrial zone automatically would cause them to be treated as permitted principal uses in the B-40 zone. Later in 2009, the township council adopted a new ordinance to address that deficiency. Mahwah Realty Associates and TSI Mahwah, LLC again challenged the new ordinance in Superior Court. De La Cruz invalidated the new ordinance, also on procedural grounds. De La Cruz found that the council did not discuss the reasons it chose to adopt the ordinance during its public hearing so those reasons could be listed in the official minutes of the hearing. She explained that a zoning ordinance that is not consistent with a municipality’s master plan may be adopted only if the reasons for adopting the ordinance are contained in a resolution and recorded in the minutes of the public hearing. She also explained that the council did not discuss the reasons for passing the ordinance at the public hearing and, as a result, those reasons were not included in the minutes of the hearing. Although the attorney for the township did not dispute the fact that the reasons were not specifically discussed at the public hearing and in the minutes of that hearing, he argued that the reasons were stated in the resolution the council passed contemporaneously with the ordinance. He said the minutes of the hearing direct the public to the resolution that contained the reasons. De La Cruz, however, relied on a state law that was passed by the legislature in 1975 and amended in 1985. That law requires the reasons to be in the resolution and, recorded in the minutes of the hearing. She found that the law was unambiguous in that regard. De La Cruz did not address the plaintiffs’ criticism of the township’s effort to create two different classes of health club uses, one called a health and wellness center and another that is called a fitness and health club. The plaintiffs asserted that the only difference between the two uses was that a health and wellness center must be hospital sponsored and is permitted to feature full retail food service, while a fitness and health club is only permitted to have a juice bar or snack bar. The judge also did not address the plaintiffs’ claim that certain members of the council and the planning board had conflicts of interest because of their relationship with the Valley Hospital and/or with Valley Health Medical Group, which origi- nally applied for a use variance to permit a health club in the township’s industrial zone in 2007. The plaintiffs said that relationship tainted the adoption of the ordinance. Both the township and the plaintiffs filed cross motions to dismiss each other’s cases, but De La Cruz emphasized that her decision was based solely on procedural grounds. She said she was not ruling on the substantive issues raised in either of the cross motions. The concept of permitting wellness and fitness uses in the township’s industrial zones arose when The Valley Fitness and Wellness Center, which was affiliated with the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, proposed to operate a health and wellness center in the GI-80 zone on McKee Drive. When the original ordinance was invalidated in 2007, plans for a Mahwah-based fitness and wellness center were dropped. Nevertheless, the township proceeded to amend the ordinance, which was reintroduced and adopted in 2009. Imagine never having to shave or wax again... Are you embarresed by unwanted hair? We have the solution. 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