Special Hearing on Cougar Field Lights Set for Sept 1.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment said at the on Thursday night that it will hold a special hearing on Sept. 1 for continuing arguments in the application to install lights at Cougar Field in Chatham Township.

At least one key player won't be present: Board officer Frank Russo.

At its July 7 meeting, the Board endured what amounted to a three-hour exercise in legal posturing as attorneys grilled Russo on his handling of paperwork related to the lighting application.

Russo handled the questioning like any zoning officer might, in relation to the procedural duties of his role. Russo's role is to accept applications and decide issues such as area-bulk or sign variances. He is also responsible for interpreting any provision of zoning ordinances that determine the exact location of any district boundaries.

The July meeting ended, however, with completion of attorney questioning, but the commencement of witnesses had been tabled until August.

"I told Frank that they had a chance to question you and you are done," said Board attorney Gary Hall, Thursday night during a meeting break. "This is the interpretation and [Russo] said if they are changing things, go for site plan."

The argument of the attorneys is that Russo should have indicated what additional variances were needed. "That is what we are going to deal with [at the next meeting]," Hall said. 

Attorney Rob Simon, representing the Cougar Field Neighborhood Preservation Association of Madison residents and attorney Richard Koenig, representing the Chatham Board of Education, had been arguing interpretation of Russo's rejection of a potential application.

Russo and the boards have yet to receive a formal application from the applicants.

"How many approvals do you need?" Hall asked, incredulously. "There is no application. We don't have any plans. You need to get X, Y and Z, come back, file an application, and come back and then we'll go that whole circus."

The circus has returned periodically over the past 15 years. 

"I thought that it was over in 1996," said Zoning Board member Nancy Northrup. "There are two camps here. There are some who say there is nothing wrong with not having lighting — a child's life is not entirely over if he doesn't play a night game. Then there are other people who say that it's a child's right to have a night game. This is so emotional and they believe that if it doesn't happen during high school, life is over."

In 2008, state Superior Court Judge W. Hunt Dumont ruled in Morristown that a plan to install lights at Cougar Field would require zoning board approvals in Chatham Township, Chatham Borough and Madison.

But in 2009, the Chatham High School Athletic Boosters said that it would provide funding to install lights on a field near Cougar Field, thereby subverting Madison's jurisdiction and Dumont's ruling.

In response, Madison officials said that the new field still fell within their purview and that the court's ruling applies.