By: Cara Latham
ROOSEVELT The Borough Council has adopted an amendment to the local zoning ordinance that would allow schools, including those similar to the controversial Yeshiva Me’On Hatorah, to locate in a specific area of the borough.
It is unclear whether the amendment adopted Monday on a 5-0 vote, with Jeff Ellentuck abstaining will have an effect on the lawsuit filed by the yeshiva and the landlord of the students who attend the school.
Borough officials have said in the past that the amendment was not the result of any specific negotiations.
The change also allows school dormitories, school athletic facilities and houses of worship in the borough’s residential/agricultural zones.
That land is composed of about 600 acres, but only a little more than 100 are capable of being developed. The zones comprise two tracts of land the largest in the northern half, the other in the southeast.
The yeshiva and its dormitory are not located in the zones.
The yeshiva a school where Orthodox Jewish males 13 years and older study the Torah operates out of Congregation Anshei Roosevelt’s synagogue on Homestead Lane. The lot is located in a residential zone on a lot of less than two acres, a size required by the current local zoning ordinance for any religious use. The Planning Board ruled in September that it was in violation of local law.
Its 25 students are living in a single-family house at 53 N. Rochdale Ave. owned by Paul Brottman. In December, the board reached a 4-4 stalemate over whether to uphold a zoning violation issue to Mr. Brottman. Former Zoning Officer Bob Francis said he issued the violation because the house appeared to be a dormitory, which is not a permitted use in the zone where the house is located. The violation was appealed.
Mr. Brottman and Rabbi Yisroel Eisenberg, who rents the property, filed a lawsuit in Monmouth County Superior Court against Mr. Francis and the Planning Board in January for failing to make a decision.
Yeshiva Vice President Joshua Pruzansky has said in the past he hoped that the borough would come to a compromise with the yeshiva, rather than pursuing litigation.

