September 4, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 5 Mahwah Chai Lifeline zoning enforcement stay denied by Frank J. McMahon Superior Court Judge Alexander Carver III has refused to grant Chai Lifeline a stay of the enforcement of the provisions of the Mahwah zoning ordinance that prohibits the continued use of a single-family home in a residential zone by various members of its organization for short periods of time. Chai Lifeline is a Jewish not-for-profit organization with offices in Manhattan and a regional office in Lakewood. The organi- zation has been using its house in Mahwah for short-term multi-day periods of grief counseling for families with children who suffer from serious illnesses, groups of mothers whose children have died, groups of young widows, or those who share a common family crisis. The 4.58-acre property on Ramapo Valley Road is in an R-80 single-family residential zone. Various members of Chai Lifeline have been using the house for short stays since the property was donated to the non-profit organization in 2007. Acting on complaints by several neigh- bors, the township’s former zoning officer found the use to be a violation of the town- ship’s zoning ordinance in 2009. Chai Life- line then brought the issue to the township’s zoning board of adjustment, which denied the organization’s request to overturn the zoning officer’s interpretation of the ordi- nance, and denied Chai Lifeline’s applica- tion for a use variance. Chai Lifeline appealed the denial of the use variance to Superior Court. However, in a decision rendered on March 11, 2013, Judge Carver affirmed the board’s denial. In that decision, Carver ruled that Chai Lifeline’s use of the property did not meet the definition of “family” and “single- family use” as stated in the township’s zoning ordinance, which permits groups of unrelated individuals to live together in a single-family zone if the residents bear the generic character of a relatively permanent functioning family unit. Carver also found that Chai Lifeline’s use of the property did not constitute a single-family use as con- templated by Mahwah’s zoning code and master plan, and that the use was more akin to a transient use, which is an impermis- sible use specifically distinguished in the language of the township’s ordinance. Chai Lifeline appealed Carver’s ruling to the Appellate Division of Superior Court and that decision is still pending, but no action has been taken by the township since then to enforce the zoning ordinance. Based on a letter from a neighbor of the Chai Lifeline property, the township recently decided to enforce the zoning ordi- nance and Chai Lifeline then filed a show cause order with Carver seeking to stop the township from enforcing the zoning ordi- nance until the matter has been reviewed and decided by the Appellate Division of Superior Court. (continued on page 14)