Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • September 18, 2013 Mahwah Chai Lifeline seeks stay from appellate court by Frank J. McMahon Chai Lifeline has filed a formal appeal to the Appellate Division of Superior Court to stop the Mahwah from acting on a ruling by Superior Court Judge Alexander Carver III. That ruling found that Chai Lifeline’s use of its residential dwelling on Ramapo Valley Road violates the township’s zoning ordinance. Justin Santagata, an attorney for Chai Lifeline, wants the appellate court to stop any action on Carver’s March 11, 2013 ruling at least until the court makes a decision. When Carver refused on Aug. 27 to grant a stay of any action on his ruling, Santagata sought an emergency stay, but Appellate Court Judge Jonathan Harris denied that request, claiming there was insufficient reason to grant a stay based on immediate or irreparable harm. Santagata then filed the formal motion with the appel- late court. In that motion, he argued that Chai Lifeline would be irreparably harmed without a stay because Chai Lifeline only has one purpose and that is to help families who have lost a child to terminal illness or are coping with children who have chronic or terminal illnesses. He said the house could not be used in any other way. Santagata claims that allowing this client to continue to use the property while it is being litigated in the appellate division does no harm to Mahwah, but stopping the use would cause great harm to the people his client allows to use the property. “The irreparable harm is to Chai Lifeline’s purpose” Santagata stated, “and to the families who need the house for respite.” Mahwah has revoked Chai Lifeline’s certificate of occupancy on the basis that the use of the dwelling as con- ducted by Chai Lifeline does not comply with the state’s uniform code of construction. Santagata claims his client is now therefore precluded from using the house in any way, which he stated “is irreparable harm by any definition of the phrase.” In his motion, Santagata also claims a stay should be granted because his appeal has merit for several reasons. He claims the ordinance underlying Carver’s decision was never referred to the township’s planning board, and the ordinance is void for vagueness because it does not articu- late what is required to comply with it, such as how long a single family would have to reside at the retreat to satisfy the ordinance. Santagata also claims that Chai Lifeline families cannot be denied rights that are enjoyed by state residents merely because they are mostly from out of state, and he says the appellate division has repeatedly rejected Mahwah’s reli- ance on “durational occupancy,” meaning transiency, as a distinction between a single-family dwelling and other uses. Andrew Fede, Mahwah’s township attorney, described Chai Lifeline’s use of the property as illegal, however, and the township wants that use to stop, claiming it is harmful to the neighbors of the property. William Smith, the attorney for several neighbors of the Chai Lifeline property, claims his clients have been object- ing to this use for more than four years and there have been three decisions rendered that found Chai Lifeline’s current use is a violation of the township’s zoning ordinance. Smith believes it is appropriate to enforce that zoning ordinance. Chai Lifeline is a Jewish not-for-profit organization that has been using its house since 2007 for short period 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 house is located on a 4.58 acre property on Ramapo Valley Road, which is in the R-80 single family residential zone. The property was donated to Chai Lifeline by its pre- vious owner. In 2009, acting on complaints from several neighbors, the township’s former zoning officer found Chai Lifeline’s use of the property to be a violation of the zoning ordi- nance. The township’s zoning board of adjustment denied Chai Lifeline’s request to overturn the zoning officer’s interpre- tation of the ordinance, and the organization’s use variance application. Chai Lifeline appealed the denial of the use variance to Superior Court, but that denial was affirmed by Judge Carver in his March 11, 2013 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 per- mits groups of unrelated individuals to live together in a single-family zone if the residents bear the generic charac- ter of a relatively permanent functioning family unit. Carver also found that Chai Lifeline’s use of the prop- erty did not constitute a single-family use as contemplated by the zoning code and master plan and that the use was more akin to a transient use, which is an impermissible use specifically distinguished in the language of the township’s ordinance. Chai Lifeline appealed Carver’s ruling to the Appellate Division of Superior Court. That decision is still pending. Truck stop truck stop site into a service station for fueling trucks and cars. The improvement included a cleanup of any soil con- tamination, the demolition of the site, and its reconstruction into a fueling service station with a six-station truck diesel fueling area and a 12-station car fueling area, each with overhead canopies, and the construction of a 4,282 square foot convenience store. The plan eliminated 90 percent of the existing truck spaces on the property and all overnight truck parking and it permits the local police department to enforce the state’s law restricting the idling of trucks. As part of that approval, Pilot received a conditional use variance, a fence height variance, and a setback variance for a sign that will be moved closer to Route 17 for better visibility, plus several waivers, a soil moving application, and the site plan for the truck and car fueling station. The conditional use variance permitted Pilot to change the use of its site from a truck stop to a service station even though a township ordinance does not permit service sta- tions within 500 feet of a school property and the high school athletic field is located across Ridge Road from the Pilot site. The fence height and setback variances were requested by the board during the 17 months of public hear- ings since Pilot submitted its plan to convert its truck stop into a service station in July 2008. (continued from page 3) the underground tank, which would be located on the south side of the fuel dispensers and would hold a product known as diesel emissions fluid that removes toxins from the exhaust of the trucks. The product is piped directly to the fuel dispensers and he said the product is a non-toxic combination of urea and water that breaks down if it comes in contact with diesel fuel and, if spilled, would cause no harm to the public. Phillips also described the slate walkway that was installed by the landscaper to provide access from the hotel to the Pilot convenience store, which was not on the origi- nal site plan. He said the walkway adds one half of one percent of impervious coverage to the site and, if it were removed, he believes hotel guests will continue to use the mulch area as a walk or use Route 17 to get to the conve- nience store. The improvement of the Pilot site was approved in December 2009 and that improvement expanded a previous