Essex County Superior Court Judge Alfonse Cifelli issued an oral judgment last Friday on the suit, filed shortly after the board’s ratification of plans for 131 Glenridge Ave. on Aug. 13, 2007.

The judge found that the board had not acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it approved the plans in spite of the 18-space deficiency, and that the board had enough evidence to justify its granting of the parking variance, Karasick said.

The plaintiff, a company called 1 Greenwood, which owns a nearby building with a parking deck, had argued that the board should have required a traffic-impact study of the gallery before approving of the project’s parking deficit.

David Owen, the attorney representing the principals of Glen Willow Associates, Stephen Plofker and Harlan Waksal, who own the gallery-in-the-making, said it would be impossible to provide that much on-site parking, considering the structure sits on "a very small interior lot."

Assistant Planner Patrick Franco said the 1,867-square-foot lot is completely covered by the building itself.

Before they submitted an application to the Planning Board, Plofker and Waksal had obtained permits from the Montclair Building Department and had started renovating the vacant one-and-a-half story building, previously an auto parts supplier, to make it two stories. Once it became known that they needed a parking variance, work on the site was halted and hearings on the plans began.

After the board gave its approval, construction on the site resumed despite the pending litigation, and now the building’s transformation is nearly complete.

It was unknown at The Times’ deadline whether the plaintiff intended to file an appeal.