Shannon Mullen

@MullenAPP

LAKEWOOD - A property owner cited for operating an unapproved dormitory in a home destroyed in a fire earlier this year wound up paying the township a $1 fine, records show.

Numerous young men attending a nearby religious school, Yeshiva Gedola Na'os Yaakov, narrowly escaped the pre-dawn blaze Feb. 29 in the home they were sharing at 825 East End Ave. Firefighters found 27 beds inside the residence. The fire began when an inflatable mattress ignited, fire officials determined.

The property owner, the Toby Donner Irrevocable Trust, never obtained the township’s approval to change the use of the home, which was only permitted to house up to five lodgers, according to its certificate of occupancy. The property wasn’t registered with the state as a dormitory and didn’t have a sprinkler system, which is mandatory for dormitories.

The township’s construction official, Michael Saccomanno, issued David A. Donner, a trustee of the family trust, a violation notice the day of the fire for an “illegal change of use” and ordered him to pay a penalty of $642.86.

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On March 7 the trust filed an appeal with the Ocean County Construction Board of Appeals. The trust’s attorney, Yosef B. Jacobovitch, argued that the house wasn’t a dormitory, citing a 1990 decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court. In that case, Borough of Glassboro vs. Vallorosi, the court affirmed that a group of 10 unrelated college students living together in an off-campus home constituted a “family.”

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Saccomanno filed a “notice of abatement” dated May 17 — two days before the appeal was scheduled to be heard — stating that the matter had been resolved. The notice shows an assessed penalty of $1.

Township Manager Thomas Henshaw said a stiffer fine wasn't possible in light of the Supreme Court ruling.

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Donner, a township resident, said the violation notice was an error on the township's part.

"It happens at every college that there are students who live off campus, but that doesn't make it a dorm," he said. He said the house had ample room — about 4,500 square feet.

"It wasn't crowded," Donner said. He said he did not know exactly how many students were living in the home, however.

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Rabbi Schlomo Lesin of Yeshiva Gedola Na'os Yaakov told the Press that school officials weren't aware its students were living in the house. The yeshiva is seeking to relocate to Ocean Township, but the township's Zoning Board of Adjustment has twice rejected its application to renovate a Jewish day school at 1515 Logan Road into a Talmudic academy with dormitories for 96 men between ages 18 and 22. The yeshiva has filed a federal complaint against the township, alleging that the denials were due to open hostility toward the Orthodox Jewish community.

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On May 4, 131 children ranging from infants to 5 years old had to be evacuated from a daycare center that shares the same building with the yeshiva on Somerset Avenue due to a buildup of carbon monoxide fumes. The fumes were from a power saw being used in another part of the building. Lesin said the daycare center was a tenant of the building and not affiliated with the yeshiva.

On May 9 Lakewood's Zoning Board of Adjustment voted unanimously to grant David A. Donner a bulk variance to build one, two-unit duplex on the 825 East End Ave. property. Each unit will have five bedrooms, plus a three-bedroom basement apartment.

Shannon Mullen: 732-643-4278; smullen4@gannettnj.com