The Jackson Planning Board on Monday evening denied an application to construct four private schools on Chandler Road and Jackson Mills Road – despite the application having been fully conforming.
The proposed campus would have spanned over 200,000 square feet, comprising four schools – a boys’ high school, two boys’ elementary schools, and a girls’ elementary school – for approximately 2,500 students in total.
The Planning Board denied the application because if it were approved, it would have to then go before a governing body (the Township Council) to decide whether a public roadway could be paved off of Chandler Road leading to the schools.
Donna Jennings, who represented the applicant, argued that they could approve the application and allow the governing body to then decide whether a roadway would be put there, thereby making it unnecessary for the applicant to return to the Planning Board for a second, repetitive approval.
The Board wouldn’t hear of it and denied the application.
Following the board’s vote to deny the application, Jennings vowed to sue the board, stating, “Tomorrow, the Asbury Park Press will have a headline declaring ‘Jackson Fumbles Again.'”
The issue was whether the interior roadway should be Public or Private. Ms. Jennings wanted the road to be public, but, the argument was if The Applicant is going to file for “Tax Exempt” Status, then the road should be private and therefore be maintained by the applicant. By declaring it Public, The Applicant would’ve gotten Jackson’s Tax Dollars to Maintain, Snow Removal, etc., On Our “Taxpayer’s Dime.”
She threatened to sue. What a surprise.
Why should the taxpayer pick up the tab for an entrance road to a “private school” especially if the property is tax exempt The Gaul of the lawyer to threaten to sue over this obviously rediculous stipulation, says all you need to know about the real motive here…give the Orthodox what they want, have the taxpayers pay for an improvement on a property they pay no taxes on, and then have the taxpayers pay to maintain the “public” road on their private, tax exempt property! Let’s see how Mayor Mike and our Township Committee give the Orthodox interests what they want…on the taxpayer…