{"id":21554,"date":"2023-02-07T02:56:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T07:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=21554"},"modified":"2023-02-07T05:14:27","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T10:14:27","slug":"owner-of-former-brick-temple-signals-interest-in-opening-library-learning-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/02\/owner-of-former-brick-temple-signals-interest-in-opening-library-learning-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of Former Brick Temple Signals Interest in Opening ‘Library, Learning Center’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The former Temple Beth Or building at 200 Van Zile Road, Brick, N.J., Feb. 6, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick Township officials are seeking additional information from the owner of the former Temple Beth Or property on Van Zile Road after correspondence over the past two months indicates a desire to open a \u201clibrary and learning center\u201d in the longtime house of worship.<\/p>\n

Congregation Kehilos Yisroel, an ultra-Orthodox organization led by Lakewood developer David Gluck, purchased the building at 200 Van Zile Road from the mainstream Conservative Jewish congregation Temple Beth Or in 2021. Last week, in a matter unrelated to the Van Zile site, the remaining members of Temple Beth Or received zoning board approval to move into a new home on Salmon Street.<\/p>\n

After taking possession of the Van Zile property, Gluck\u2019s organization quickly opened a boys\u2019 high school<\/a> in the building which was not permitted and was ultimately shuttered by the township pending zoning board approval. The zoning board case<\/a> has been stalled for well over a year with no activity and, according to officials, cannot move forward since no money remains in an escrow account.<\/p>\n

The latest proposal by Gluck, now represented by Lacey Township attorney Jerry Dasti, was first floated in a Nov. 22, 2022 letter to Brick Township zoning officer Christopher Romano. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Shorebeat through a request under the state\u2019s Open Public Records Act, Dasti requested a zoning permit \u201cto allow the property to be used, in part, as a library\/learning center.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not seeking zoning permit approval to utilize the property for a school,\u201d the letter continued. \u201cIn fact, the application for a school both before the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, are in the process of being dismissed without prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter went on to state that the building\u2019s 125 parking spaces are \u201cmore than enough for the usage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe and assert that this is an allowable use in accordance with the township\u2019s zoning ordinances, and clearly an appurtenance to the synagogue which will not adversely impact upon the surrounding neighborhood or the zone plan,\u201d Dasti wrote.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The former Temple Beth Or building at 200 Van Zile Road, Brick, N.J., Feb. 6, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The letter prompted questions from township officials, most significantly due to the fact that the township\u2019s zoning code makes no mention of private libraries and does not carve out a definition for a \u201clearning center.\u201d Romano, in a responsive letter, said he reviewed with matter with Ronald Cucchiaro, the zoning board attorney, as well as the municipal planner, and \u201cagree more information should be provided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public libraries are expressly permitted in residential zones in Brick Township, however there is a question whether a legal distinction must be made when a library will, presumably, be privately owned and operated. Dasti, in a followup letter, asserted that \u201cprivate\/religious libraries should be treated the same way\u201d as public libraries.<\/p>\n

In the township\u2019s response, Romano sought a citation in the township code allowing private libraries to operate in residential zones, and asked whether the library would be open to the public. He also asked Dasti to describe the daily activities which would take place in the facility and how the site will function. Additionally, the township asked for more details on the \u201clearning center\u201d portion of the request \u2013 and whether there will be scheduled study and hours of operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe general definition of an establishment open to the public is \u2018open to all,'\u201d Romano\u2019s letter said. \u201cThe land use code does not have a definition for \u2018public,\u2019 however in every instance it is used, it certainly means open to all. As we can agree, the use of the word \u2018private\u2019 excludes the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last correspondence provided responsive to Shorebeat\u2019s request for documents occurred Dec. 23, representing Romano\u2019s response. There have been no filings with the zoning board since, nor has a zoning permit been issued.<\/p>\n

The desire to use the former temple as a high school would have required the zoning board to vote in favor of allowing the school to operate as a conditional use in the residential zone. That request, which was the subject of one hearing in front of the board before the case stalled, was opposed by neighbors who held that the school would be inappropriately placed and produce excessive traffic. There were also allegations of \u201cblockbusting\u201d on the part of real estate agents connected with Lakewood\u2019s Orthodox community, who aggressively attempted to purchase homes nearby.<\/p>\n

Gluck, himself, purchased two homes in the surrounding neighborhood, one of which was shut down by Brick Township following allegations that it was being used as an illegal dormitory<\/a>. The complaint issued to Gluck by Brick\u2019s code enforcement office remains pending and, last week, Municipal Court Judge Joseph Grisanti said during a hearing that the case was adjourned until May. Gluck has since sold both of the homes.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick Township officials are seeking additional information from the owner of the former Temple Beth Or property on Van Zile Road after correspondence over the past two months indicates a desire to open a \u201clibrary and learning center\u201d in the longtime house of worship. Congregation Kehilos Yisroel, an ultra-Orthodox organization led by Lakewood developer David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Owner of Former #Brick #NJ #Temple Signals Interest in Opening 'Library, Learning Center'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,4477,4484,4883,3907,2432],"class_list":["post-21554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-david-gluck","tag-featured","tag-library","tag-temple-beth-or","tag-van-zile-road"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/former_temple_beth_or_van_zile_2023_899-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5BE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}