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Though the synagogue isn't in the clear just yet, plans for the Summit Jewish Community Center's 4,000-square-foot addition moved one step closer to reality with a recent ruling in New Jersey Superior Court.

On Nov. 17, Judge Karen Cassidy of Superior Court in Elizabeth upheld the Summit Zoning Board of Adjustment's approval of the synagogue's new building at the corner of Morris Avenue and Kent Place Boulevard, which will include a new sanctuary with seating for 294 congregants, three additional classrooms, and a multi-purpose room to serve as a social hall.

The Zoning Board approved the building last December, but 45 neighbors appealed the city's decision because they sought "to preserve the integrity of the existing single-family residential areas by maintaining existing development intensity and population density," according to a civil complaint. Another appeal, which the neighbors have 45 days to file, would push back construction for yet another year, said Richard Barron, past president of the SJCC and co-chair of the expansion committee.

If the neighbors choose not to pursue the case in New Jersey's Appellate Division, the synagogue would begin building this coming spring or summer when the weather clears, Barron said. The Conservative synagogue's current 7,000-square-foot facility doesn't have a social hall, preventing members or other community members from holding bar and bat mitzvah or wedding receptions there.

"It would be the fulfillment of a dream of literally generations of congregants," Barron said of what it would mean for the new building to come to fruition.

Barron explained that the Zoning Board took until last January to record their approval, followed by the neighbors' appeal in March and Superior Court hearing the case on Oct. 30. The SJCC, the neighbors, and the city of Summit all submitted extensive briefs to Cassidy, who noted in her decision that the Summit Landmarks Committee declined comment on the zoning application, reflecting poorly on the neighbors' claims that the building's proposed design didn't fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, Barron said.

"We felt that the Summit Zoning Board had done a really careful job," Barron said.

The expansion's projected cost is $2.5-3 million. Conditions for the zoning approval included variances for a house of worship on a lot less than the required two acres (the SJCC's new lot is 1.86 acres), a proposed front yard setback of 35.9 feet (50 feet is required), lot coverage of 42.79 percent (40 percent is the maximum permitted), and 50 parking spaces where at least 98 are required for a synagogue of the SJCC's size.

In their complaint, the neighbors described the area near the synagogue as a "fragile neighborhood" that is "part of a proposed historic district." Any construction plan should maintain "a compatible relationship between the new or expanded houses and traditional neighborhood houses that reflect the best of neighborhood character, particularly in terms of scale, siting, design features and orientation," the complaint stated.

In 2003, the SJCC purchased two lots adjacent to its current building, one of them empty and one with a Victorian house in disrepair. The existing synagogue building doesn't meet the congregation's needs, Barron said, explaining that weekday morning adult education courses are held off-site because the SJCC's nursery school occupies the whole building.

"There is just not room for everyone, for different constituents," Barron said.