Synagogue ripped on its parking
And since the group is based out of a home across from the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library on State Road A1A, complaints from neighbors about noise and parking have grown as well.
"As that congregation has grown, so has the parking problem," Curtis Long, a next-door neighbor at 523 A1A, told trustees of the Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District (MSD) Monday night.
Long was seeking "some relief" from the dozens of cars that are sometimes parked at an angle on the eastern shoulder of A1A.
Long said he and his wife must sometimes come to a complete stop on the busy highway to carefully maneuver between cars parked along their driveway on the grass.
Although Wayne Flowers, attorney for the MSD, advised the board that it has no authority over such land use issues, most of the trustees agreed that something should be done about the cars parked at the Chabad house.
"The parking to me seems extremely dangerous," said Trustee Al Hollon.
Gary Jurenovich agreed, adding that "the bumpers of those cars are right on the white line." MSD Chair Robert Reesh said he has even seen cars parked in the median.
Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky, director of Chabad, said in an interview Tuesday that reports of out-of-control parking are exaggerated.
"We're very sympathetic with our neighbors," said Kurinsky, who lives in the home with wife Leah and son Avi.
"We've done everything we could in the past. . . to assist them and to try to keep everybody happy."
Kurinsky said he plans on moving the congregation of 50 to 60 families to a private facility soon, but the congregation cannot yet afford property in Ponte Vedra.
Kurinsky said he is looking for a lot big enough for a small synagogue and perhaps a few small homes.
Regular services are held Saturday mornings, and dinners for the congregation are held every Friday night. Kurinsky said he believes they are within their rights to hold services and allow visitors to park.
But Trustee Rob Becker said the problem lies in allowing special events and activities out of a private home.
Although Chabad is not considered a business, Becker said they sometimes hold special events and charge each person who attends - an activity that he considers fund-raising.
"You don't see the Episcopal Church and you don't see the Catholic Church running fund-raisers out of homes," Becker said.
"I think it's frankly uncalled for, and it's going to set a precedent."
Flowers said local governments must be very careful when dealing with religious groups because arguments for discrimination are easy to make.
"There are so many shades of gray between what is and what isn't religious activity," Flowers said.
St. Johns County Commissioner Bruce Maguire, who attended the MSD meeting, said the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has the only authority over parking regulations on state roads such as A1A.
Maguire said he would check to see what can be done with the county's legal department and with Joe Stephenson, public works director for St. Johns County, who used to work for the FDOT.
Stephenson said in a telephone interview Tuesday that parking on grassy shoulders of state roads is permissible as long as it doesn't create a safety hazard or a maintenance problem.
Drivers pulling out onto the road must have a "clear sight view" of oncoming traffic, Stephenson said.
He also said parking on a regular basis along the shoulder can kill vegetation, exposing dirt. The dirt is then washed away by rain, which creates not only a maintenance problem, but also a safety hazard, he said.
FDOT standards dictate that a shoulder can be no more than 3 inches below the surface of the pavement, according to Stephenson.
Anything more than 3 inches is considered a "shoulder drop-off" and a safety hazard, he said.
Stephenson said drivers tend to "jerk" their cars back onto the road when they drift off the pavement, and shoulder drop-offs can cause drivers to lose control of the car or even flip a vehicle.
If FDOT officials are called to examine a parking problem in that area, they will most likely look for shoulder drop-offs, Stephenson said.
If they find a problem, they will post "no parking signs," he said.
Aside from the occasional car or two, Kurinsky said members of his congregation have not parked along the road in about four weeks.
He said the problem can be solved by simply encouraging people to carpool and park along the neighborhood streets to the east.
posted by Lubavitch @ 4:35 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
DOT says parking at Chabad OK
by KATHY HARTMAN, Editor
Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:24 PM CDT
Trustees of the Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District (MSD) this week took up where they left off last month, struggling to help a resident annoyed by parking and noise at his neighbors' house on State Road A1A.
But while their discussion covered every level of government - local to federal - and several possible approaches to the issue, there may be little that can be done to stop the annoyance.
“There's really nothing that prohibits them from parking in the grass, that I'm aware of,” said Chris LeDew,
assistant traffic operations
engineer for the Northeast Florida district of the
state Department of Transportation.
LeDew said that the DOT concluded about six weeks ago that “no parking” signs should not be put at the site.
“We're trying our hardest to make sure people don't park there,” said Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky, who owns the house where parking on the DOT right-of-way has led to complaints.
“We're trying our best to understand the concerns of our neighbor . . . and we're doing our best to address those concerns, to make sure not to be a burden,” Kurinsky said Thursday.
The concerns are of parking and noise outside Kurinsky's house on the east side of A1A opposite the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library.
The rabbi and his wife, Leah, hold weekly services and events at their home relating to the Jewish organization, Chabad @ the Beaches, of which the rabbi is director.
With scarce parking available at the home, some guests have parked on the grass in front of the house, which is in the right-of-way.
Cars crowding the site and guests mulling around and talking late Friday nights led to complaints to the MSD from Kurinsky's next-door neighbor, Curtis Long.
Long had little to say at Monday's MSD meeting at the Ponte Vedra library, but trustees kicked around several topics in searching for relief for Long.
“Is this not a church?” asked Mack McCuller.
Rob Becker wondered whether the organization must have handicap access and a sprinkler system, and another trustee wondered whether anything in the law protects residents from being disturbed by activities at a neighbor's home.
Wayne Flowers, attorney for the MSD, said that the issue is almost identical to a case in Orlando that was judged in favor of a Chabad organization.
In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals said that a religious organization that meets in a home cannot have different requirements than do other organizations that meet in homes.
“Religion is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act,” Flowers told trustees.
In fact, the Orlando case relied on a 2000 law of Congress, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which “protects religious institutions from unduly burdensome or discriminatory land use regulations,” according to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
The law was passed after Congressional hearings showed that, religious groups particularly “minority religions and start-up churches, . . . were actively discriminated against” by local land use decision.
Flowers told trustees that the DOT would have to decide whether no parking signs are needed at the home.
He said parking in the A1A right-of-way got to be a problem in front of Al's Pizza in Ponte Vedra Beach and no-parking signs were installed.
But LeDew said that a resident requested such signs outside the Kurinsky home about six weeks ago.
After a telephone conversation between the resident and the DOT, the DOT concluded there was no safety issue so signs were not called for, LeDew said.
Kurinsky said that when events are held at the home, someone checks “every half hour or so” and asks drivers to move their cars if they are parked on the right-of-way.
“It's not more than a few cars,” said Kurinsky, noting that the organization hopes to find a different, permanent site in the future.
“It's only a temporary solution,” Kurinsky said, adding that he has been assured by “a number of sheriff's and city officials” that parking in the right-of-way is OK.
“This is the way they are, and this is the way they're going to be.”
Post a Comment
<< Home