Liberty Corner Presbyterian Withdrawals Application for New Sanctuary

Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church has withdrawn its application to the Bernards Township Zoning Board of Adjustment regarding additional construction of a new sanctuary on the 11.5 acre property.

Vincent Bisogno, Liberty Corner Presbyterian church's attorney made the case for the additional building and for the approval of certain variances for several months with no headway.

The Presbyterian Church said they felt the need to move forward with Phase II of their construction plan. Phase I was the addition of office and education buildings on the property, and Phase II, the construction of a new church.

The original plans for Phase II were presented to the Planning Board on Oct. 3, 2000 and were approved – almost ten years ago. A new engineer was hired to the Liberty Corner project and redid the blueprints for the new church, and thus, new variances were needed. 

Without a specific timeline or sufficient funding, the Zoning Board was adamant that more changes to the plans were needed for approval. 

During the Jun. 18 meeting in front of the Zoning Board, Board Counsel Steven Warner suggested that the legal implications of the 2000 approval by the Planning Board be researched before any further discussion. The board wanted to be certain what variances they were allowed to vote on or not, and whether it was best if the whole project be reevaluated. 

While discussion regarding legality was not made public, Bisogno felt it was best to pull the project for the time being since construction was not a timely matter.

"One of the peripheral issues that we had was the timing of our construction. We're not sure exactly when we're going to build our sanctuary. The timing could be two to three or four years down the road – we're not sure," Bisogno said. "In view of the fact that the board had some concerns about other issues in the case and because of our timing problem in regard to construction we feel it would be appropriate to withdraw the application." 

According to Warner, it is not uncommon for applicants to withdraw applications without prejudice. 

If an application is brought to the Zoning Board in the future regarding construction of a new sanctuary at Liberty Corner it would be considered a new case. The board members would not need to review prior minutes regarding the Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church case. 

The Zoning Board unanimously agreed to accept the withdrawal of the Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church case without prejudice.