Pingpong Application Draws Ire From Wayne Residents

WAYNE, NJ — A group of residents is fighting plans by a Franklin Lakes doctor to build a table tennis club on Colfax Road.

Residents have started a Facebook group, "Keep Commercial Off Colfax" and littered their neighborhood with blue and white signs that say the same.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear Dr. Nader Fahimi's application to build the 27,000-square-foot Northeast Table Tennis Club at a meeting Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Complex. The meeting will be broadcast live on the township's website.

"This is just too much for the people on Colfax Road," said Claudia Cece, an outspoken leader of the neighborhood resistance. "They should not even be considering the application."

Cece and locals are bringing an attorney, and engineering, traffic, and planning experts before the Zoning Board of Adjustment in response to the application.

Fahimi needs a use variance to building the facility in the residential zone. The two-story facility would have 16 pingpong tables, bleachers, locker rooms, and a large treatment room.

The facility would have 61 parking spaces and 77 trees would be removed from the tract of land to build it.

Fahimi told NorthJersey.com that he was "disappointed that these people don't see the benefits of this club. If it takes more attorneys, and more money, to fight these people, we'll do it."

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com