Plaintiffs Win Article 78 Challenge Against Ramapo Planning Board SEQR Determination and Ramapo Zoning Board Use and Area Variance Approval for the Bluefield Extension Project
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 5, 2021
CONTACT: Susan H. Shapiro, Esq. 845-371-2100 | susan@rocklandenvironmentalgroup.com
Rockland Environmental Group is pleased to announce the Decision and Order of Honorable Judge Eisenpress of the Rockland County Supreme Court in the civil case CITIZENS UNITED TO PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD-HILLCREST et al v. RAMAPO TOWN OF et al (Index No. 32128/2020) in favor of the Plaintiffs represented by the firm on March 3, 2021.
For the second time, the Court has vacated use and area variances granted by the Ramapo Zoning Board of Appeals (“ZBA”) needed to construct 15 multi-family units on a 1-acre site in Hillcrest. The Court also vacated the Planning Board’s New York State Environmental Quality Review Act determination – that there will be no environmental impacts from the high density project.
The ZBA approvals were vacated for the jurisdictional failure to include all the necessary materials in its referral of the application to the County Planning Department for general municipal review, as required by law. The Planning Board environmental determination was annulled as jurisdictionally defective, because the required time for public notice for an environmental review hearing was not provided. All of the procedural problems were communicated in writing by Rockland Environmental Group to the Planning and Zoning Boards before their decisions were made and could have easily been corrected.
Many of the more substantive concerns made by area residents were not considered by the Court, because the Court could rely on the clear jurisdictional failures of process, making it unnecessary for it to consider other, more complex and project specific concerns. “While that is frustrating, citizens should take heart – and the Town should take warning – that the Rockland Supreme Court recognizes the fundamental importance of the need for the Town to properly follow the law for land use application processing” says Deborah Munitz, a well known land use activist, who volunteered for CUPON-Hillcrest regarding this project.
Here, the failure to provide procedurally proper notice robbed the public of their due process rights and opportunity to fully participate in public hearing. Members of the public must be afforded the right to examine complete review paperwork and rely on County Planning Department review of all submissions prior to public hearing, when radical land use changes – not in keeping with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and Town Code – are being considered.
“The myriad of Bluefield Extension applications over the past seven years paints a sordid history of the past abusive decision making by Ramapo for this project, including the enrichment of a Town Councilman in connection with flipping this project’s property” stated attorney Susan H. Shapiro of Rockland Environmental Group. The Town and the applicant had every opportunity to submit new application paperwork, and correct the procedural and substantive failures of the past. They did not, and also failed to conduct proper due diligence relating to the inflated purchase prices for the land acquisitions upon which they tried to justify a use variances. In spite of these procedural problems being brought to the Town’s attention in advance, the Town willfully ignored the warnings, and once again failed to fulfill its most basic legal responsibilities to protect the public and comply with lawful procedures.
This Article 78 challenge would not have been possible without the support of volunteers and donors of Citizen’s United to Protect Out Neighborhood (CUPON) – Hillcrest, who seek truth and rational decision making in Ramapo. We hope that court decisions like this will finally incentivize the Town boards and their counsel to simply do their jobs properly, on behalf of both residents and developers of Ramapo. All are negatively affected by the Town’s continued failure to follow to state and local laws, causing unnecessary waste of tax dollars and municipal resources. “It is really unfair that community residents need to fund litigation to correct defective approvals, while also paying taxes for the Town to defend its unlawful decision making,” said Michael Miller of CUPON-Hillcrest. Following the law, and making informed and rational decision is in everyone’s interest.
The Rockland Report
Although several applications were submitted for review and ultimately withdrawn, on January 30, 2014, the Town zoning Board of Appeals granted a use variance allowing the development. However, according to the zoning board of appeal’s resolution approving the variance, it was indicated that “the disapproval (of the county) is hereby over-ridden as the (zoning) board disagrees with its finding…” The problem was, according to the county’s lawsuit, the county never received the entire application and never issued its findings or a statutory review.
