Chai Center Litigation Could Cost Millburn $113,000

Millburn Township and the Concerned Neighborhood Association of Millburn Township, Inc. could be on the hook for more than $100,000 in attorneys' fees over litigation concerning the construction of the Chai Center for Living Judaism. 

On May 31, Essex County Superior Court Judge Sebastian P. Lombardi overturned a zoning board decision to deny the construction of the temple's expansion and ruled that the municipality and the neighborhood association were to cover the attorneys' fees accrued by Rabbi Mendel Bogomilsky during the course of the litigation, according to NorthJersey.com

Hearings with the Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment over the construction of the proposed 16,350-square foot synagogue in Short Hills began in 2010, as previously reported by Patch. 

In February of 2012, the zoning board denied the variances sought by the Chai Center, which would have allowed the synagogue to be built on residential property on Jefferson Avenue. The zoning board denied the plan based, in part, on the lack of parking spaces included in the plan.

Lombardi, however, struck down the zoning board's ruling. 

NorthJersey.com reported that the entire cost could come to $113,834.85 based on the 242.46 hours worked on the case by Bogomilsky's eight attorneys.