For the second time, the Ocean Township Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously ruled to deny the application for a 96-student Yeshiva school. Watch video
OCEAN TWP. -- Officials struck down on Monday night a controversial application for a 96-student boarding school specializing in Jewish studies -- for a second time.
The seven-member Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously ruled to deny the application after a nearly two-hour public hearing held inside the Ocean Township High School gymnasium, as it had done late last year. The crowd of a couple hundred in attendance rose to their feet and gave a thunderous applause following the vote.
The applicant, Yeshiva Gedola Na'os Yaakov, is seeking a use variance to turn an elementary school into a Yeshiva that will house 96-students ages 18 to 22. After the Zoning Board ruled against the application on Dec. 1, the group filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging religious discrimination among the Board members and the township's residents, who fiercely oppose the Yeshiva.
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson ordered the Zoning Board have two more additional public hearings on the applicantion. Monday night's meeting was the second of the two hearings.
But Wolfson still has jurisdiction over the case and will rule on the March motion filed by the attorneys representing the applicant
Donna Jennings, an attorney representing the applicant, declined to comment on the Board's ruling on Monday night.
Prior to the judge's order, the application had gone through more than a year's worth of public meetings, that at times drew crowds of more than 1,000 residents. A July 15, 2015, meeting was adjourned after the township's fire marshal said the high school's auditorium was at more than max capacity.
The meetings were then moved to the school's gymnasium, and also simulcast on a television screen in the cafeteria.
Residents have said the Yeshiva school will change the makeup of the family-oriented neighborhood and drive down property values. The applicant has contended that the students will be isolated to the property, and focus solely on their Talmudic studies.
The school, located at 1515 Logan Road, is currently a Yeshiva day school. Applications to turn it into a boarding school have been submitted in past years, but were withdrawn.
The school is temporarily located in Lakewood, home to the nation's largest Yeshiva school and a booming Orthodox Jewish population.
The Yeshiva's leader, Rabbi Shlomo Lessin, has said that he wants the school to be permanently located in Ocean Township, located about 20 miles north of Lakewood, so that the students don't get distracted by friends and family.
On Monday night, Zoning Board officials repeatedly stated that their opposition to the application has never been about religion, and is more about the intensity of the application and the restrictions that would be placed on the 96 students.
In a statement read at the meeting, Chairman Warren Goode said the restrictions that would be on the students -- no smoking, outdoor activities, the windows must be closed at all times -- are "at best difficult to enforce."
During the public portion of the meeting, a couple Ocean Township residents compared the restrictions to that of a jail.
"I think prisoners in jail have more rights than these young men," said Irene Roake, an Ocean Township resident.
But attorneys representing the applicant contend the application is protected under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, or RLUIPA, which protects religious organizations from being discriminated against in zoning and landmark cases.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.