Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposal at 7:30 p.m. on June 27
By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — City Mayor David Del Vecchio has addressed concerns about a controversial proposal to start a music hall in the Old Baptist Church on Bridge Street.
The city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposal at 7:30 p.m. on June 27.
”We appreciate that this project has created a lot of interest and concern, both for and against it,” the mayor said at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
”This council has no jurisdiction over the zoning parts of the application and there is nothing we will be doing as a mayor and council at this time. We cannot pass any law concerning it, or otherwise interfere. The law requires the Zoning Board to apply the ordinance in place at the time the application was deemed complete. Any ordinance changes we would make would not apply to the project unless the owners withdraw their application and start over.”
The Zoning Board of Adjustment would have to grant use variances to the Bridge Street Foundation for the music hall project to go forward.
”This is an application for variances and other relief, which is pending before our Zoning Board,” the mayor said. “They have had a number of hearings so far. The hearing is before the Zoning Board because a portion of the church property is in our R-2 residential zone, so the owners have to obtain use variances to allow the uses they want to put in that building (theater, restaurant, tavern). Those uses are not permitted in the R-2 zone.”
In the written statement he read aloud at Monday night’s meeting, the mayor outlined the process followed by the Zoning Board.
The board still is taking testimony from the Bridge Street Foundation and its professional consultants, he said. The board “also will be taking questions and comments from the public, both in support and in opposition to the application. There could well be at least a couple of more hearings beyond the June 27 hearing.”
He noted that the applicant may decide to adjourn one or more hearings to make revisions to the application based on those questions and comments, as well as questions and input from the planner, engineer and attorney.
”It is the owners’ burden to show their application has merit, and that they are entitled to the variances they seek,” the mayor continued. “Legally they must satisfy the Zoning Board that they have special reasons for the granting of the variances. They also must show that those variances and the other relief they want can be granted without detriment to the public good, will not impair the purpose of the zone plan and zoning ordinance.
”The Zoning Board could decide to grant all of the requested variances, or none, or they could grant some variances but not others. If the Zoning Board is to approve any variances, they must do so with at least five ‘yes’ votes. Whoever is dissatisfied with their decision can appeal to the Superior Court after the written resolution explaining their rulings is adopted,” he noted.
The mayor concluded: “We have heard concerns that not everyone who has wanted to be heard has gotten a chance to speak yet to the Zoning Board. You can be sure that the public will get to be heard, but you will have to be patient, and you will have to be present at the hearings to speak in order for your statements to be considered by the board.
” Neither the Zoning Board, nor we as a council, can accept petitions, email chains or letters for or against the project, because the law does not permit those to be considered as evidence or testimony.”

