Judge Grants Neighbors' Request for Representation in Helipad Appeal

Union County Superior Court Assignment Judge Karen Cassidy, despite Atlantic Health’s objections, has granted a motion by Attorney Michael Kates to "intervene" on behalf of Citizens Against The Helipad in Overlook’s appeal of the helipad decision.

"This means our neighborhood group will be a full participant in all of the proceedings before this court, with the ability to make arguments, rebut the hospital’s arguments and offer assistance to the Summit Zoning Board as it defends its decision denying Overlook's application for a variance to construct a helipad," said members of the organization via email Wednesday afternoon.

Atlantic Health officially filed its complaint stating its wish to appeal the Zoning Board's decision on Jan. 28. The Zoning Board memorialized their June 2010 vote to deny the hospital's application to construct a helipad on the roof of the C-wing in a resolution dated Dec. 6, 2010.

The next step will be a conference among the judge and attorneys May 17 to lay out a briefing schedule.

"We’re very pleased to be in it," Kates, of Kates Nussman Rapone Ellis Farhi of Hackensack, said. "We're very pleased Judge Cassidy is keeping the case rather than turning it over. It deserves her prominence."

"That being said we look forward to it being heard," he said.

After more than 3,000 pages of transcripts and testimony from expert witnesses on everything from real estate values to acoustical impacts, on June 21 the Zoning Board of Adjustment first concluded that the helipad application should not get favorable treatment just because the helipad was attached to a hospital. Under zoning law, hospitals get favorable treatment because they are seen as inherently beneficial to the community. But the board voted that the helipad was not an "accessory" use of the hospital, and therefore should get no special treatment.

It then decided that while the majority did not feel the helipad is an inherently beneficial use, it would be best to proceed as if it were in case of an appeal. Zoning Board attorney Dennis Galvin said by approaching the vote in this way it would eliminate one argument the hospital could make before the courts on an appeal.

The board then . Sandy Bloom was the lone member who was in favor of the application.