Parking Concerns Remain Focus For Proposed Synagogue In Brick

BRICK, NJ — Concerns about the plans for parking at the proposed site of the Temple Beth Or synagogue dominated nearly four hours of testimony Wednesday night before the Brick Township Board of Adjustment.

Temple Beth Or, which sold its former property on Van Zile Road because the property far exceeded the needs of the congregation, is seeking variances to allow it to turn the former Laurelton Funeral Home on Pier Road into a synagogue and offices.

The adequacy of the parking and a proposal by the synagogue to lease additional parking from St. Thomas Lutheran Church, which is right next door to the funeral home, led to intense discussions between the board and town professionals and the professionals hired by the congregation.

Rabbi Robert Rubin, who leads the Temple Beth Or, said the Conservative Jewish congregation has seen its membership decline significantly over the last several years. That is what led to it selling the Van Zile property, he said. The congregation bought the Pier Road site because its smaller size was a better fit for the congregation, which has no young members with young children right now.

“We would love to grow,” Rubin said in response to a zoning board member’s question. “But that’s not the reality of what we are seeing.”

The sanctuary could hold 64 people, requiring 16 parking spaces based on that room’s occupancy, said Jeffrey Carr, the engineer for the Temple Beth Or application. Rubin said the size of the sanctuary would accommodate those members at services.

Rubin said the congregation has 75 memberships, some of which are for a single person, some for couples. Some are people who have moved out of state but retained their membership, he said.

Rubin said the highest attendance at services is for the high holy days of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, with about 60 people in attendance. Jewish prayer services differ from Christian denominations in that while there is a start time for the service, congregants do not all arrive for the very start, instead showing up at staggered times, and they do not all leave at the same time, Rubin said.

Board attorney Anne Marie Rizzuto told Carr and John Jackson, the attorney for Temple Beth Or, that they need to get real-time counts on how many parking spaces are being used by the temple congregation for a typical service.

Brian Boccanfuso, the township engineer, said the parking needs to be based on the occupancy of the entire facility, which is 338 people, or 85 parking spaces.

Special events could potentially draw more people, Rubin said, but those events would not be frequent. The congregation hosted a weekly bingo night at the Van Zile location but they don’t plan to do so at the Pier Road property.

The former funeral home has a small parking lot, which Carr said will accommodate 15 cars. To meet the need for additional parking, the congregation is leasing parking from St. Thomas Lutheran Church, where it has been renting space to hold its prayer services along with an office for the last year.

Township planner Tara Paxton questioned what it would mean for future zoning applications if the board granted a variance for the parking based on the parking needs filled by leasing a private parking lot.

The lease and the potential implications left the board facing a conundrum, board chairman David Chadwick said.

Jackson said they would discuss with the representatives of St. Thomas church the possibility of getting the parking lease recorded as part of the church’s deed, so that if the church sold its property, the lease would remain in force for the synagogue.

If the synagogue sells the Pier Road property, the parking lease automatically terminates and would not transfer to a new owner, Jackson said.

The hearing is set to continue at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Brick Township municipal building, 401 Chambers Bridge Road. Chadwick said he anticipated the board will be able to get through public comment and vote on the application.