Too Close to Home: An Overview

We bring you the full story this week of the dispute between and its neighbors – a bitter legal struggle that has temporarily left Union Catholic’s baseball players without a home and divided neighbors that had previously lived amicably together for nearly half a century.

On June 8, the Union County Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Union Catholic from playing or permitting any baseball games, practices or camps on the turf field the school built in 2009. The order follows a lawsuit filed by a couple that claims that since the field was installed, more foul balls are flying into its yard than ever before, threatening its family’s physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as its property. Union Catholic officials, however, question the couple’s claims, arguing that the installation of synthetic turf shifted the baseball field farther from the school’s property lines and, by extension, neighbors’ yards.

It is a fight that has now lasted longer than two years, and its roots extend to the early 1960s, when the school and Black Birch Road were first constructed. 

Hence, we have divided this story into three parts, to be published Sunday, Monday and Tuesday:

provides an overview of the conflict. It explores how Union Catholic and Black Birch Road, two communities that grew up alongside one another, suddenly found themselves at loggerheads in a protracted legal fight. .

delves into the conflicts and decisions that divided the neighborhood and ultimately led a couple to file a lawsuit against the school, the town, and the town’s planning. .

explores the lawsuit’s aftermath and discusses the events that led to a second legal complaint filed against the school. .