The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Chaos erupted after the September 18 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting when members of the Ukrainian community chased two top prelates of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of U.S.A. from the municipal building to their van.
The group of between 50 and 75 people yelled “shame” in Ukrainian and English as they followed Metropolitan Antony and Archbishop Daniel out of the Township Council chamber, down the municipal building driveway and into their van.
The group continued chanting after the prelates were driven away, catching the interest of several Franklin Township police officers who happened by as they began their midnight shifts.
The crowd stayed for another approximately 20 minutes, listening to a speaker and chanting slogans.
The group was part of nearly 200 people who crowded in the Chamber to hear an application to subdivide the 32-acre parcel on which sits the church and the Ukrainian Cultural Center into two separate parcels of roughly 15 acres and 17 acres.
The church’s plan is to sell off the parcel containing the Cultural Center to a company that plans to raze it and build in its stead a 258,150-square-foot warehouse.
Opponents of the plan are angry because, they say, it was made without input from supporters of the cultural center, and tearing down the cultural center is an attack on their Ukrainian heritage.
Metropolitan Antony has said that the church needs to sell the property to pay for needed improvements to other buildings, including the seminary, and build another, smaller, cultural center.
The Board is hearing three separate applications on the property; one for the subdivision of the parcel, one for a variance triggered by the subdivision, and the third is site plan approval for the warehouse.
The Zoning Board heard from Josh Zemon, a principal of Creation Equity, the company that wishes to buy the land and build the warehouse.
Franklin, Zemon said, “has long been a focus area for us. We’ve spent many years searching for the right opportunity, and we feel this project will be a great addition to your community. Its location at 287 Davidson Avenue provides excellent access and visibility to potential corporate users without impacting any residential areas, and will complement the surrounding businesses.”
Zemon said the company envisions subdividing the building into 10,000- and 100,000-square-foot spaces for a variety of tenants “that have some component of warehousing distribution, some component of light manufacturing, some component of office or retail showroom.”
The next hearing on the applications is set for 7 p.m. November 6. The Board decided to move the venue to the Board of Education Administration Building on Route 27 to accommodate the expected large crowd.
Here’s a short video of the crowd:
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