Use Variance Needed For Chabad, Zoning Board Rules At Rowdy Hearing

TOMS RIVER, NJ -- A Toms River rabbi will have to seek a use variance to continue to use the single-family home where he lives for religious gatherings after the Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected his attorney’s assertion that the gatherings were “an ancillary use.”

At the end of an often-rowdy four-hour meeting in the auditorium at Toms River High School North, the board voted with one abstention to turn reject the interpretation sought by attorney Christopher Costa on behalf of Rabbi Moshe Gourarie on the issue of the property at 2001 Church Road, which is owned by Chabad Jewish Center and occupied by Gourarie and his wife and children.

That vote means Gourarie will need to seek a use variance to host gatherings that range from weekly prayer services to Passover Seder and lectures at the home, which is in an area zoned residential but, according to Costa, surrounded on three sides by non-residential uses.

A date for the use variance hearing will be set at the zoning board’s January reorganization meeting, and the use variance hearing will again be at Toms River North, Board Chairwoman Linda Stefanik said.

The special meeting Thursday night packed the auditorium, with some who came turned away at the door when it reached capacity. Some of those in attendance were there to support Gourarie’s request, but many others opposed it, and loudly made their opposition known throughout the meeting, shouting down people who stepped to the microphone with questions, despite repeated requests from Stefanik to quiet down.

>> RELATED: Live Coverage of Thursday’s Chabad Jewish Center Meeting

Many in the room expressed anger over the tax-exempt status of the property, and repeatedly questioned why it is permitted and wanted the board to act to change that, to which Stefanik and board attorney Kim A. Pascarella repeatedly said is not within the board’s authority.

“If you feel there is an abuse of the process or a change is necessary talk to your legislators,” Pascarella said.

Costa laid out several factors and cited two court cases -- one criminal, one civil -- which he said supported his contention that the religious services and other events that Gourarie was holding at the home were ”ancillary uses,” meaning they occupied and utilized such a small part of the property that they should be permitted.

Attorney Edward Liston, who represented several neighbors of the Chabad Jewish Center, argued that the activities, through their frequency and size -- some events attracted as many as 40 or 50 people -- put it in the realm of a house of worship, a use that is no longer permitted in that zone.

Liston challenged Gourarie on the zoning issue in particular, asking him if he had investigated what the zoning was when Chabad Jewish Center -- of which Gourarie is president -- purchased the property in 2011. Gourarie said he believed his attorney at that time had done so, but that he did not have formal discussions with Zoning Officer Bernard Mackle about it.

Gourarie repeatedly said the purpose of the Chabad is to be a gathering place for both Jews and non-Jews who want to learn more about Judaism, and to be an outreach to the community -- both Jewish and non-Jewish. The school, he said, is limited to teaching Hebrew and about Judaism, and does not teach other subjects.

Residents who got up to speak grilled Gourarie on a variety of questions, often covering some of the same topics addressed by Liston and Costa in their opening remarks.

They asked Gourarie on his future plans for the center, bringing up a fundraising site that shows plans for significant expansion of the center. Gourarie said those were his initial dream for the site but that it will not happen, sparking rumbles in the audience.

Gourarie repeatedly said the purpose of the Chabad is to be a gathering place for both Jews and non-Jews who want to learn more about Judaism, and to be an outreach to the community -- both Jewish and non-Jewish.

The school, he said, is limited to teaching Hebrew and about Judaism, and does not teach other subjects. His wife teaches four or five students for two hours on Sunday mornings, he said, but nothing more.

Several times residents got testy, shouting at the board and asking the board why the Chabad was not addressed sooner, to which Pascarella said the town only became aware of the issue when Gourarie was cited for violations that sparked the application.

Not everyone was angry. Some residents who questioned Gourarie complimented him on the good works he does through the Chabad, stating their concerns were primarily about traffic impact on already-busy Church Road and the tax-exempt issue.

But the anger simmered in the room all night, as residents reacted in disbelief to statements from Gourarie that he does not plan to expand the home or renovate the property to accommodate larger numbers of people, or plan to operate a private school on the site -- two big concerns of many in the room, a reflection of issues stemming from real estate soliciting conflicts that led to Toms River’s tightened no-knock ordinance.

It erupting when a man from East Windsor who represented several local hotels got up to the microphone and rattled off the list of Toms River hotels he was connected with. The shouting for him to sit down was so loud Stefanik could barely be heard as she told people to quiet down.

“We need a clear record of what has been said when this goes to court,” she said, an outcome she and many expect regardless of how the zoning board decides on the use variance.

It erupted again when the last woman in line -- who had questioned Gourarie once previously -- got up to the mike and began grilling him again on how he would respond to a large crowd showing up at an event. As she pressed him for an answer, a woman who was there in support of Gourarie got up and began yelling at the first woman, shaking her finger in the woman’s face, until other audience members interceded and pulled her away.

The vote stilled any further conflict. At least until the next hearing.

(The board listens to testimony in the case; Rabbi Moshe Gourarie. Two women get into a heated exchange at the end of the hearing. Photos: Karen Wall)