"God is Omni-Present, except in certain parts of New Jersey"
-
Woody Allen
Montgomery Township, New Jersey to Maharishi: Thanks but no thanks
By: Jake Uitti, Staff Writer
12/05/2006
Planning Board panel meditates only briefly before rejecting request to
build Global Country of World Peace facility on Cherry Valley Road.
MONTGOMERY Representatives of Global Country of World Peace an
organization started by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental
Meditation, a movement that advocates world peace through meditation in
schools, vedic architecture and herbal remedies came before the Montgomery
Township Master Plan Committee on Monday with a request to open a facility off
Cherry Valley Road.
Montgomery officials said thanks, but no thanks.
The township's Master Plan Committee unanimously found that the request
violates both the township's zoning and its Master Plan.
"It is an institutional use in a residential zone," said Steven
Sacks-Wilner, chairman of the Master Plan Committee. "And not just any
residential zone it is an environmentally sensitive, very preserved,
important part of the town and it's our edge with Princeton."
The location of the proposed College of Vedic Medicine is a 60-acre tract at
the corner of Cherry Valley and Mountain View roads.
The practice of Vedic medicine espouses therapeutic measures relating to
physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony. Former students of the
Maharishi include the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Clint Eastwood.
The proposed development was for a college-like facility with students
focusing on transcendental meditation, massage therapy and preventative
healing, among other techniques.
Officials from the organization said the facility would be a research
university for students to meditate, explore the human consciousness and apply
their findings from the meditation to research to better the world.
The facility would include a spa, an administration building, parking lots,
classroom facilities and housing and dining.
Although the site would be used as an "educational facility," said Paul
Potter, regional director for the New York-based group, it would not be the
type of college with loud parties and other aspects of college life that often
come to mind. Instead, it would be mostly older people meditating, he said.
Officials from Global Country of World Peace said they liked the site off
Cherry Valley Road because it was quiet, peaceful and embedded in nature.
They said they were seeking a site in the Princeton area because it would
connect with Albert Einstein's idea of "unified field" or an attempt to unify
the world's fundamental forces and interactions.
"It would be a very powerful influence of peace to the whole world," said
Mr. Potter. "We are here to offer that opportunity."
The proposed site includes wetlands and stream corridors, Mr. Sacks-Wilner
said, and it is an area of the township with unpaved roads and extensive
open-space holdings.
Mayor Louise Wilson said she encouraged the organization to look at other
parts of the township that were not zoned residential that may be more suitable.
Officials from Global Country of World Peace can make an application before
the township's Zoning Board of Adjustment if they wish to request permission to
build on the site, or they can go to the Township Committee and request a
zoning change.
They can seek zoning variances based on special reasons, township Planner
Richard Coppola said, but they would have to demonstrate that their application
does not violate township zoning or the Master Plan.
Global Country of World Peace officials would have to demonstrate that the
tract is particularly well suited for what they want to do, more so than other
tracts, and that the proposed facility does not have any adverse impact on the
public good, and that it is compatible with zoning and the Master Plan.
Dozens of Montgomery residents came to Monday's meeting and expressed
concern about the proposed facility, claiming it would take up too much land
and, as a nonprofit organization, would not pay property taxes.
Global Country of World Peace also recently met with Princeton officials to
informally talk about a location on Bunn Drive in Princeton Township for an
18-acre facility between Poor Farm Road and Herrontown Woods.
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central
New Jersey 2006
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