Rajeshwar and Roopa Yadav have again filed a lawsuit against West Windsor alleging the township has unfairly prevented them from subdividing their property on North Post Road.##M:[more]##
This will be the ninth lawsuit filed by the couple since 1983, including four state and four federal court cases, all of which have ruled in favor of West Windsor in the zoning dispute.
The Yadavs applied for a subdivision in 1981 to build seven single family homes on their four-acre lot. West Windsor’s zoning restricted them from doing so, and the couple was therefore denied by the planning board, and the issue went into litigation. In 1983, says Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert, the matter was settled in front of a Superior Court Judge, when the couple was granted a conditional subdivision approval, which allowed the couple to build. But instead of building, the Yadavs sued the township, claiming their conditions were illegal.
When a New Jersey judge ruled that the conditions were lawful, the Yadavs filed federal cases claiming the township did not grant subdivisions to Asians, particularly of Indian descent, Herbert said. Those cases were ruled in the township’s favor, and by that time, the three-year limit on the conditional subdivision expired, at which time the Yadavs filed another lawsuit claiming that the time limit on the subdivision was illegal.
The most recent lawsuit stems from a zoning change this past January, which changed the name of the R-1A zone to the R-1C zone. Herbert says the change was called for in the Master Plan and is simply a name change. “That was just to expand the R-1A zone to include some properties down by the county park,” Herbert says. “They didn’t change the Yadavs’ property at all, just expanded the zone.”
The Yadavs allege that their rights have been denied because they were never notified of the change in the zoning and that they should have had a right to oppose it. Herbert says, however, that the township was not required to notify the Yadavs because it really doesn’t have an affect on their property. “There’s also no requirement to notify because it was contemplated during the change in the Master Plan,” he said.
Herbert says he is preparing a new motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and for sanctions. “Lawsuits like this cost the taxpayers of the whole state a lot of money,” Herbert said. “It’s my argument and belief, and I think most people would agree, that the Yadavs have abused their right to file lawsuits.”
