Decisive Meetings Will Impact Bridgewater's Future

December is usually not a month for important municipal events—but a pair of special Planning Board meetings on Monday and Tuesday evenings may have major importance to the township's future.

Monday, the board will meet to hear the conclusions and recommendations on the Weyerhauser property, in Finderne, and whether or not the site should be considered for redevelopment action.

The Township Council approved a resolution authorizing the board's study that limits redevelopment short of condemnation and the use of eminent domain to seize the site, but should the township decide to proceed with redevelopment, it still has many tools to use to improve the area.

Tuesday night's special Planning Board meeting on the application by AlFalah to build a mosque on Mountain Top Road—the first of two scheduled—will likely be a lively affair.

The application was denied in 2011 after the township approved an ordinance limiting houses of worship to areas near major thoroughfares—putting the proposed location out of permitted zones.

The AlFalah Center sued Bridgewater, and in October, federal judge Michael Shipp, sitting in U.S. District Court in Trenton, ruled the township must rehear the application without taking the ordinance into consideration.

The township is appealing the judge's decision, but is required to hold the Planning Board hearings.

Will the board deny the mosque application again? Will the township's appeal render the meetings moot? 

Stay tuned to much more to come on what has been one of the most contentious issues in Bridgewater in years.