Shalom Torah Center gains Planning Board approval

Staff Writer

By theresa a. boschen

Shalom Torah Center gains
Planning Board approval

MARLBORO — Unanimous preliminary and final site plan approval has been granted by the Planning Board to the Shalom Torah Center for the construction of a school on Amboy Road.

A large audience sat in Town Hall’s main meeting room on Aug. 1 and listened as Shalom Torah representatives described the plans for a 35,932-square-foot school on 10.23 acres which would house about 250 children, 25 percent of whom are expected to be Marlboro residents.

The not-for-profit religious school will have three play areas, a proposed 106 parking spaces and will be the newest of a chain of six similar facilities located throughout Middlesex, Monmouth and Mercer counties, according to Shalom Torah President A. Joseph Stern. Shalom Torah was founded in 1973.

Comments from the public elicited support for the school.

"The school certainly will be an asset to Marlboro," said Loren Mitchell of Marlboro. "The administration of this school, without a doubt, has incredible integrity. They’ve done wonderful things for the parents and the students."

Raisa Kandov of Marlboro spoke of her satisfaction with her son, Joseph, currently attending the fifth grade in one of the Shalom Torah schools.

"The teachers are very knowledgeable and dedicated," she said, praising the attentiveness of the school’s educators and describing the school as one that is very conscientious of social events for the students and parents.

"My son doesn’t want to go to any other school," Kandov said.

Stern testified that the plans for the new building are "incomparable to anything we have." He said there would be between 10 and 15 children per classroom. The school will be a center for children in preschool through eighth grade with 18 classrooms and 45 staff members, according to project engineer Lorali E. Totten of Crest Engineering Associates, Hightstown.

Stern said he is hoping for construction to begin sometime this year. He described the planned facility as a state-of-the-art building complete with science and computer labs and a gymnasium. The school is to be designed by a national architectural firm, The Thomas Group, of upstate New York.

Within its approval, board members granted a waiver of the requirement for sidewalks to be built along all aisles and driveways on the property; instead, the applicant was permitted to include crosswalks in the plans. In addition, the board granted a waiver allowing for a slope of a half percent for the low-flow channel of a detention basin on the grounds. The waiver changes for the applicant a requirement of a minimum slope of 1 percent for the low-flow channel of the detention basin, according to Totten.

No members of the public spoke in opposition to the application.