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Manalapan will seek to intervene in crematorium lawsuit

By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN – The municipal attorney has received permission to intervene in a lawsuit that has been filed against the Manalapan Planning Board by an applicant who has sought approval to establish a crematorium on the grounds of the Old Tennent Cemetery.

The crematorium has been a topic of discussion before municipal boards several times in recent years, but no formal decision has been rendered on the proposal. Manalapan’s elected officials have said they are against the plan put forth by the cemetery association.

During a meeting on Nov. 30, Township Committee members voted unanimously to authorize Township Attorney Roger McLaughlin to intervene in a lawsuit involving the crematorium. Most recently, the application was before the Planning Board.

During a July 28 Planning Board meeting, before testimony was heard, attorneys representing the Old Tennent Cemetery Association, the applicant, and Stop the Manalapan Crematorium Inc., which objects to the proposal, argued technical points related to the project, including which municipal body should consider the crematorium plan.

In the end, and acting on the advice of their attorney, board members Kathryn Kwaak, Rick Hogan, Barry Jacobson, Alan Ginsberg, Daria D’Agostino and John Castronovo determined they did not have jurisdiction to hear the application and adjourned the meeting.

Following that decision, a lawsuit challenging the board’s determination and seeking approval of the crematorium application was filed by the cemetery association in state Superior Court, Freehold.

Speaking at the Nov. 30 meeting of the governing body, McLaughlin said the lawsuit “challenges the Planning Board’s decision that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the crematorium application. The lawsuit also raises issues involving the township and there is a strong basis for the township to intervene. We will seek to make a motion to intervene and present the township’s position in that case.”

Glenn Cohen, the president of Stop the Manalapan Crematorium, said his group “strongly supports the intervention of the Township Committee” in the lawsuit that has been filed against the Planning Board.

“It is my belief that a strong intervention … will allow the township to put a permanent end to this (application),” Cohen told committee members.

The cemetery association is seeking approval to construct a 1,300-square-foot addition on an existing office building on the cemetery grounds off Tennent Road and to install two retorts (furnaces) that would conduct up to 600 cremations per year.

At the July 28 meeting, attorney Steven Gouin, who represents Stop the Manalapan Crematorium, argued that the Planning Board should not hear the application because, in his view, the application requires a “D” variance that can only be granted by a zoning board of adjustment.

Gouin argued that the addition of an accessory use (the crematorium) would represent an expansion of a non-conforming use (the cemetery in a residential environmental zone).

In response, attorney Edward Liston, who represents the cemetery association, argued that including a crematorium on the property would not be an expansion of the cemetery. He cited the New Jersey Cemetery Act which he said considers a crematorium to be closely aligned with and incidental to a cemetery use.

Liston said if the board members determined they did not have jurisdiction to hear the application, the matter would be appealed in court.

The board’s attorney, Ron Cucchiaro, said he believed the proposed addition to the office building to accommodate the retorts would be an enlargement of the cemetery and he said the enlargement of the cemetery would require approval from the Township Committee in accordance with the New Jersey Cemetery Act.

And, Cucchiaro said he believed the proposed addition to the office building on the cemetery grounds would be an expansion of a non-conforming use that would require a variance that only a zoning board may grant.

Following Cucchiaro’s remarks, a motion was made which stated that the board lacked jurisdiction to hear the crematorium application at that time. All six seated board members voted yes on the motion, which concluded the matter that evening.

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