Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on June 22, 2017

The 1-acre tract on Brook Avenue in Passaic where Congregation Emek Yehoshua has proposed building a synagogue, school with dormitories, community center and banquet hall.(Photo: Richard Cowen/NorthJersey.com)

PASSAIC Plans for a synagogue won unanimous approval from the Passaic zoning board recently under the condition that the developers clean up the contaminated site before construction begins.

Congregation Emek Yehoshua first came before the board in March 2016 with its applicationto build a synagogue, banquet hall, senior center and Talmudic school with dormitories at 41 Brook Ave.near River Drive.But whenthe state Department of Environmental Protection declared the site contaminated a month later, hearings were tabled until a study of the grounds was conductedand a remediation plan was submitted.

In January, a report from Reach Associates Inc., an environmental consulting firm hired by the applicants, stated that, while the contamination levels are below DEP levels for contact soil remediation standards, they do exceed impact to ground water standards. The land was the site of a long-shuttered engraving business.

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Though much of the contamination is due to historic fill, chromium and cyanide are present because of tanks that the former businessused in the embossing process, the report added.

Neighbors and zoning board members were also concerned that the applicants had downplayed the possible impact the complex could have on traffic.

Earlier this year, Rabbis Yeshia Buxbaum and Daniel Simon assured the zoning board that the congregation had only 35members, and that students attending the school were required to live on campus and not allowed to keep a car on the site.

That requirement was included within last week's conditional approval, which also puts a 32-student cap on the school's admissions, and limits rental of the banquet hall to Yehoshua's members.

Commissioners also limited event attendance to 125 persons, and stipulated that any event must be over by 1 a.m.

The rabbis said the hall would most often be used for a bris, bar or bat mitzvah, about five times a year.

"The intent of the board," said chairman Menachem Bazian, "was to take an eyesore and put it to use by the community."

"The property is contaminated," he added. "It will be cleaned up."

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Passaic board OKs synagogue for contaminated site - NorthJersey.com

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