School Takes Township To Court Over Dorms

The parent company of a school in Clifton has filed a civil complaint in Passaic County Superior Court against the township.

Milkyway Education Center Inc. claims the Town bypassed state law when it approved an ordinance limiting where dormitories can be located in the township. The company wants to on Totowa Road.

“We were treated very unfairly," said Isik Durmus, acting vice principal of the academy.

The school recruits children from mostly wealthy families both in the United States and in eastern European countries.

Milkyway filed the complaint in Superior Court March 9, said A. Michael Rubin, the attorney representing Mikyway. The township has received a copy of the complaint.

School officials want to move the academy out of its 18,000 square-foot facility in Clifton and into a 160,000 square-foot facility. Officials want to construct dormitories on site and triple the school’s enrollment from 200 to 600 students.

The council approved an ordinance Feb. 15 amending the land development portion of the township’s code, which now states that dormitories may only exist in an open space/government use district. The BAE Systems site is located in an industrial zone.

The council introduced the ordinance Feb. 1.

According to the complaint, representatives from Milkyway’s development team met with town Planner John Szabo, Assistant Planner Linda Lutz, and township Engineer Fernando Zapata Dec. 7, 2011 to discuss the application. The team informed the officials that dormitories were a “necessary component” of the project.

The complaint states that the school filed its application with the town’s Planning Department Feb. 9. That is the date, the complaint states, that the application should be considered complete and that the provisions of the newly-approved ordinance should not apply to the application.

“We believe that the court will make the right decision,” Durmus said.

The ordinance states that if the town deems an application to be incomplete, then the date of submission is not the date on which the application was first filed. The date town officials deem the application to be complete, as per state law, is the date by which the newly-approved ordinance would apply to the application.

Szabo previously said that the application was still “under review” on Feb.15 and was not assigned to either the Planning or Zoning Board at that time.

Township attorney Matthew Giacobbe could not be reached for comment.