Steve Lieberman (copied by CUPON from Feb.2, 2021 article to this website)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News
RAMAPO — Ramapo officials are facing a choice:
Allow housing, schools and other development in the town’s most rural area, or maintain open space beloved by area residents?
Environmentalists and northeast town property owners fear high-density housing and a campus for private schools along the narrow roads would bring increased traffic; climate issues; negative effects on water and the rivers and wells supplying the aquifer, animal life, and the quality of the woodlands and their lives.
Others, including some from outside the region, tout the need for the area to have more housing, especially for young families, outside the dense populations of Monsey.
In question is a 3.4-square-mile semi-rural northeast corridor — including the wooded Striker property along Route 45 and hundreds of homes on the former Minisceongo Golf Course.
While a long way off from making final zoning decisions, the town board adopted a scoping document outline for an environmental study concerning what could be considered for the corridor in the Pomona area and near the town’s baseball stadium.
ZONING UPDATE: Ramapo officials to vote on rezoning plan Wednesday, face opposition
However this, too, faces opposition from activists who believe the town should not take a piecemeal approach to this process, singling out one section of town for rezoning. Rather, they’re looking for Supervisor Michael Specht to fulfill his 2017 commitment to conduct a townwide master plan update. The town’s last update occurred in 2004, while updates are suggested every decade.
And, in response to complaints about the lack of transparency and explanation about the process, Specht said the town board and staff would update the residents at every board meeting. The next meeting is scheduled on Zoom for Feb. 10.
Process of planning argued
The northeast corridor is an estimated 341-acre swath. Changing the zoning amid the 3.4-square-mile corridor could allow a campus for private schools on the Striker property off Route 45 and higher-density construction of hundreds of townhouses at the former Minisceongo Golf Course.
There’s land near the Gracepoint Gospel Church on New Hempstead Road and off the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockland.
Dozens of residents argued the use of the land during a public hearing through Zoom on Jan. 20.
The Striker property, which is being considered for a private school campus, was supposed to remain pristine except for possibly a small amount of housing for volunteer firefighters, according to the agreement when the town obtained the land. However, as the landowners, the town can change the zoning.
Residents of Skyview Acres and the nearby Unitarian church oppose development. The nearly seven-decade-old Skyview Acres, the county’s first interracial housing community, has a tradition of political activism and has not ruled out taking legal action to protect their property.
Attorney Susan Hito Shapiro and other advocates said the town has muddled the process, attempting to conduct an environmental study before developing a plan.
“It doesn’t make sense they are only looking at the northeast portions, the town’s most environmentally restrained lands,” she said. “The area has a lot of vacant woods, wetlands, and recharge fields for the whole aquifer system. By doing this update piecemeal without considering the needs of the whole town are a mess.”
Shapiro said the town has not yet considered the increase in segregation within the town, noting a federal judge’s decision ordering ward voting for the East Ramapo School District. The judge found the system underrepresented people of color.
Specht said the town board is following the dictates of staff and the process is far from finished. He said residents’ views will be heard and considered in the environmental study process before the town board makes any decisions.
“While certainly many opponents wrongly believe our town is favoring developers and the religious community, many in our town have stated that the town is not doing enough to address housing needs,” Specht said.
Specht, elected in 2017 after years as a land-use attorney for the town, said he would not prejudice the outcome of the zoning update by speculating as to any planning conclusions.
Infrastructure costs, traffic increase, water usage among concerns
Litigation is possible against the town based on procedural missteps, said Micheal Miller, a leader of the grassroots Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods. known as CUPON. The group has taken the town to court on land-use decisions, most recently over the Town Board’s approval of a higher-density zone change for construction of the 224-townhouse development called Pascack Ridge.
Miller said the infrastructure costs to develop the Northeast corridor — including hundreds of houses on the golf course housing and development of the Striker property — will “cost hundreds of millions of dollars to allow any semblance of normalcy post-development, and the cost will fall on the existing residents, not the developers.”
“We cannot let this happen without exhausting every avenue to stop it or with major modifications to it that will be acceptable to the reasonable existing residents,” Miller said. “It’s quite obvious the town is committed to developing the Northeast without considering the input from the residents.”
CUPON is aligned with the group Ramapo Organized for Sustainability and A Safe Aquifer, known as ROSA. The group’s legal action has so far stopped a 474-house development at Patrick Farm in northern Ramapo and near a proposed rabbinical school in Pomona.
ROSA and other activists cite the development potentially increasing traffic, wastewater, municipal services, water usage, combined with the loss of vital wetlands and open spaces. They contend what’s being proposed for the Northeast Strategic Plan in a vacuum can establish bad planning precedents for all of the remaining vacant lands in Ramapo.
ROSA leader Suzanne Mitchell, said, “The only rubber-stamping that happens in Ramapo is between the town and the developers. The town beats its own drum and makes its own rules.”
“We need to balance the understandably greedy interests of developers with our own self-interest,” ROSA said in a statement. “We are also investors in Ramapo and we need the Town Board to protect our interests too.”
Housing needs debated
Michael Parietti, a leader of Preserve Ramapo, said the town should not support building more housing than the infrastructure can sustain, especially without guarantees against more segregated housing for just Orthodox and Hasidic Jews.
“We have seen what happens,” he said. “Usually the housing goes to all members of one religious sect. There’s no diversity. We know the Hasidic bloc vote is very powerful. All the town board members owe their seats to the bloc.”
Other residents beseeched the town board to provide the young families and others an opportunity to buy houses and allow family and friends to move into Ramapo.
Apartment-dweller Dovid Goldberg said during the meeting, “Our age group is all in the same boat looking for houses right now. We don’t know where to go.”
Esther Lerman said she lived in Ramapo for seven years and enjoys the single-family home atmosphere.
“Many of my friends are looking for places to live,” she said. “I am looking forward have zoning changes for places to live. Maybe it’s time to consider northeast Ramapo. I am looking forward to positive change without taking away from all the positives the area has to offer.”
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal. Read more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.