No Hearing or Decision Yet on Lights for Union Catholic Baseball Field

Before a large crowd at the Scotch Plains Municipal Building on Monday night, the township's Planning Board, after considerable discussion and debate, ultimately postponed a hearing and decision on Union Catholic High School's application to install lights and a new scoreboard at the school's baseball field. The school's application also included plans to build a shed for storing sports equipment, and to make a small addition to an existing structure. The school completed construction of the baseball field in April, and it held games there during the spring.

Residents of Black Birch Road and Dutch Lane, which abut the Union Catholic property, came out to oppose the application. Some had retained lawyers.

"For people who live all around the high school, this is a serious impairment to the enjoyment of their property and to their property values," attorney Mark Rogoff said in a phone interview before the meeting. He is representing Sachin and Rajul Shah of Dutch Lane. Joseph Murray is representing residents of Black Birch Road.

The two lawyers asked the board to postpone its meeting. Having been hired only late last week, they said that they had not had adequate time to prepare for the hearing. The board nevertheless entertained discussion of the proposals.

Much of the debate hinged on whether the shed included in Union Catholic's application should be considered a "structure." After much debate, the board voted 5-1 that the shed was a structure, and that it therefore required a variance to be built. Union Catholic had not included an application for a variance in its application and therefore whether to continue the hearing became an issue.

Attorney Bill Butler, representing Union Catholic, called for the board to continue with a hearing to permit him to call the school's principals, an engineer and a lighting expert, who he had brought as witnesses. In a 3-3 vote, however, the board ruled to adjourn the hearing pending resubmission of the application. Given the Board's vote, Butler withdrew the current application.

After the meeting, Rogoff said, "We asked the board to postpone the meeting on Friday. If they did that they could have avoided a lot of aggravation. This is a significant case with a significant impact on a lot of people."

"I'm disappointed with the outcome of the meeting," said Butler. "We complied with the municipal land laws by filing notification eleven days prior."

The matter is now scheduled to be heard July 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Scotch Plains Municipal Building.