Planning board presses Marwa Academy on missing plans, parking and safety; hearing carried to July 9

The Belleville Planning Board continued its hearing on Marwa Academy, a proposal to convert an existing Knights of Columbus assembly building at 94 Bridge Street into a private school, after members of the board and several residents raised multiple concerns about submitted materials, parking and safety.

Applicant counsel (identified in the record as Paul B) and the project architect described an interior‑only renovation to create four classrooms and a multi‑purpose room inside an approximately 5,500 sq ft building, with a stated maximum enrollment of 40 students and six staff. Architect Ali Qureshi testified the project would use temporary partitions to form classrooms, retain multiple existing exits, and be brought into compliance with applicable building, fire and UCC requirements.

“It's an existing structure…we are not adding anything or subtracting anything from this building,” the architect said, adding that the interior would be renovated for finishes and life‑safety systems and that the applicant would work with building and fire officials on permitting.

Neighbors and board members objected to two procedural and substantive issues. First, multiple attendees said the floor plans (marked exhibit A1 at the hearing) and related documents were not provided in the required public packet at least 10 days before the meeting, limiting public review. One board member said on the record that discovering the plans only at the hearing was a major concern. The board marked the submitted drawing as exhibit A1 and directed the applicant to circulate it to members and the public.

Second, parking and circulation surfaced as major objections. The applicant’s engineer said the proposal would restripe the lot to yield nine standard parking spaces (including one accessible space) plus three temporary drop‑off spaces and acknowledged that the town’s parking calculation for a school on this site would require more parking. The transcript records a board member stating the ordinance totals 17 required spaces plus one loading space for the proposed use. Neighbors described tight street geometry on Bridge Street and raised concerns that drop‑off and pickup could block driveways and create hazardous turning maneuvers.

Board and public commenters also cited state education guidance (Title 6A 26‑6.3) that governs open‑plan classrooms and operable partitions, characterizing the proposed temporary partitions as potentially failing acoustic and minimum clear‑dimension standards; a public commenter read specific language from the rule into the record. The applicant said the school operator (Sharfudin Ibrahim, identified in the record as imam, founder and director of Marwa Academy) currently runs a registered nonprofit school in Harrison, N.J., with 29 students, and said the Belleville location would start smaller (an estimated 20–25 students initially) and cap at 40.

Because the police department submitted a traffic comment during the day and several technical questions about circulation and compliance remained unresolved, applicant counsel asked to delay the traffic expert’s testimony until the police’s concerns could be addressed. The board agreed to carry the application to the July 9 meeting so the traffic expert and the police department could reconcile remaining issues; the hearing will resume without additional mailed notice, the board announced.

Next steps: the applicant was directed to submit the floor plan exhibits and supporting documents to the board and to coordinate with the police department and the traffic expert; the board will revisit parking, pickup/drop‑off operations, and code compliance at the July 9 hearing.