Friends...all of our hard work has paid off. The attached legal complaint, on behalf of MONTCLAIR RESIDENTS FOR RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT (officially a 501c3) has been filed in timely manner with the court as required by legal statute.
Our suit is now active and will serve as an appeal to the flawed passage of the Council's Lackawanna Redevelopment Plan. This was served on the Township last week and we believe it will now stop and inhibit the project from proceeding. Possibly indefinitely and require a whole new lawful draft Redevelopment Plan process.
Additionally, another entity has served the Township with a separate lawsuit with a focus on flooding and environmental concerns.
We should celebrate among ourselves that all of our hard work, late nights at meetings, public comments have not gone without good cause.
Most importantly a huge thank you is extended to attorney Ron Gasiorowski, of Gasiorowski & Holobinko, in Red Bank. Ron stepped in out of the blue, with no upfront retainer fee required, no connection to anyone and more importantly genuine concern for good government practices. Ron's firm (they are doing something for Westfield residents too now) drafted the legal land use complaint for our now created 501c3 and he worked without a dime upfront to get our paperwork timely filed .
Of course, we now need to do our part and pay him for this effort as soon as possible. We have to cover his legal retainer of $5,000, and you can see from the attached paperwork the quality of what that retainer has now bought us.
We are asking everyone to please make a donation to help support this effort, as we cover the lawyer's retainer and fees. Because more legal work will no doubt be needed after and we have to be ready. While we understand the Holiday Season is here and money may be tight, we appreciate any monetary amount you can give.
All donations are tax deductible. Payments can be sent three ways:
Venmo: @ MRforRD (bonnie-foegl-1)
Cashapp: $ResponsibleMontclair (MtcChick)
Snail Mail: MRforRD
125 Glenridge Ave. Suite 1773
Montclair, NJ 07042
*Check payable to MR4RD
We appreciate everyone’s support on this very important initiative. Please stay tuned for updates as they come in.
Regards,
MR4RD Board of Directors
https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/067DFWS_2_3HX7IbisNP0vczw#Legal_Complaint