Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday March 30, 2007

Kol Shofar to fight lawsuit

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

If you’re watching a ballgame or picking up a paycheck, overtime can be a lot of fun. But if you’re slogging out a hard-fought construction proposal, going into overtime is a real drag.

Following last month’s favorable ruling by Tiburon’s town council, Ron Brown, a Kol Shofar spokesman and member of the congregation’s building committee, thought he might have a chance to concentrate on, well, building. But he discovered otherwise Monday, March 26, when the Conservative synagogue’s neighbors filed a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit in an effort to alter the city’s approval of Kol Shofar’s proposed expansion and modernization.

The suit — filed on the cusp of a 30-day deadline stemming from the council’s Feb. 22 ruling greenlighting Kol Shofar’s proposed 8,300-square-foot multipurpose room and 3,662 square feet of new classroom space — adds more chapters to a three-year saga that Brown has already grown weary of.

“What do they want?” Brown queried of the Tiburon Neighborhood Coalition. “Right now, we’ve agreed to end our lifecycle events at 8 o’clock. Is eight an unreasonable time for people to be driving around the neighborhood? It’s 10 o’clock on Saturday. Is that unreasonable? I think it’s very sad that they’re not able to abide by the decision of the town council.”

Stephan Volker, the coalition’s lawyer, said the suit, filed in Marin Superior Court is a necessity. His clients believe additional environmental review is required to alleviate their concerns about planning and zoning conflicts.

“It’s traffic, primarily; parking, late-night noise and glare. This facility is at the base of a bowl and so the surrounding homes are particularly vulnerable to those kinds of things,” he said.

“There are a number of school-aged kids who bicycle or walk to school, and there have been a number of close calls in the past.”

Volker acknowledged that he is not aware of any incidents in which a motorist has struck a pedestrian in Kol Shofar’s 20-plus years in the neighborhood, but he’s “heard testimony from neighbors about near misses where, but for the grace of God, there would have been a serious injury or death.”

Ann Danforth, the town attorney of Tiburon, said she believes the city has addressed the parking situation “more than adequately,” and added that “the neighbors do not seem interested in any proposal that does not include a significant reduction in the size of the synagogue’s multi-purpose room.”

Incidentally, while Tiburon is the defendant in this suit, the coalition has, in essence, sued Kol Shofar. The synagogue, like any prospective builder in Tiburon, signed an indemnification clause with the city pledging it would defend Tiburon in the event of a third-party suit. Kol Shofar’s attorney, Gary Ragghianti, will be lead counsel and will be assisted by Danforth.

At this point, the lawsuit will not derail Kol Shofar’s ongoing building process. The synagogue must still get through Tiburon’s design review board and then obtain a building permit before commencing construction, which Brown hopes will occur within a year.

“Kol Shofar is very far from getting shovels into the ground,” said Danforth.

“If Kol Shofar were to get to the point of starting construction, I would expect the petitioners to seek a stay. That would be the typical maneuver.”

Ragghianti said cases such as this are usually adjudicated within a year, or perhaps even within eight or nine months.

Volker said he hopes it doesn’t come to that. He said the coalition’s hand was forced by the 30-day deadline to file suit or accept the town council’s ruling.

“I’ve offered repeatedly to Gary Ragghianti to meet with him in a mediation process. I don’t favor litigation at all,” said Volker. “I would much prefer to work out issues and come to a good solution in person.”

Ragghianti said he “may have had one phone call” with Volker and he doesn’t “recall a second.

“They have continually raised this mediation issue,” he said.

“It’s pretty clear the neighbors have what I consider an unreasonable view with regard to the impact of the proposed structure. I am informed they [want] the multi-purpose room to be significantly reduced in size to such a degree it’d be impossible to fulfill the needs of the temple. And that is all they’re focused on.”

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.