Is Teaneck overrun with religious institutions?

Most of the time, peace and serenity reign supreme in Teaneck. From time to time, however, emotions run high and passions are inflamed. For example, when a religious institution or charitable organization seeks to acquire a new property in Teaneck for the purpose of expansion or relocation, it is often met with stiff resistance from neighbors and other community members.

There are two common arguments that the opposition usually advances to oppose the new development-

1. The proliferation of religious or charitable institutions in Teaneck has already taken so many properties off of the tax rolls that giving up another ratable unduly harms the overburdened Teaneck taxpayer
2. Granting permission to a religious or charitable institution to move in will change the character of the neighborhood/alter traffic patterns/create noise and light pollution, etc.

The latter of these arguments, of course, is a neighborhood matter for the Zoning Board to rule on, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case.

The former argument, however, is a powerful one that renders this issue a matter of concern for residents throughout Teaneck, if its assumptions are correct.

Let's look at the facts. According to records from the Bergen County Tax Assessor, Teaneck currently contains 73 properties classified as "Church & Charitable Property." Of the 69 other municipalities in Bergen County, only Hackensack has more. Of course, since Hackensack and Teaneck are the two most populous towns in Bergen County, this may not be so remarkable. After adjusting for population using figures from the 2000 Census, it turns out that Teaneck ranks 8th in Bergen County in the category of "Church & Charitable Property" (FYI, Englewood, Midland Park, Closter, Cresskill, & Franklin Lakes are the top 5 most religious -- or most charitable -- municipalities in Bergen County according to that measure).

It might be argued that this analysis doesn't really capture the actual taxation effect of these properties. A given municipality may have a large number of religious institutions, but if they are all located on small lots in an undesirable part of town, their tax exemptions probably don't take much of a bite out of the municipality's revenues. So one may really need to look at the value of the religious and charitable properties that are removed from the tax base relative to the total value of the taxable properties in a given town in order to see how significant they are.

Using this approach and relying on 2005 data from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' Abstract of Ratables, Teaneck ranks 9th in Bergen County in terms of the magnitude reduction to the potential tax base by religious and charitable institutions (and 177th out of 566 municipalities statewide).

How much is the Teaneck tax base directly* impacted by religious and charitable institutions? If all religious and charitable institutions in Teaneck were suddenly obligated to pay taxes based on the assessed value of their properties, Teaneck would collect an additional 1.9% in property taxes. The state average for this metric is 1.6%.

This suggests that the critics may be right that this is an issue worthy of consideration in Teaneck, though not an area where Teaneck is at any kind of extreme.



* I say "directly" because it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify any enhancement to the value of the dwellings and commercial properties in Teaneck on account of their proximity to houses of worship or other charitable institutions.