RAMAPO — A state appellate panel has found the Grandview Avenue religious housing development legal, potentially ending eight years of legal action that cost Ramapo and its villages several million dollars.
The panel ruled Wednesday that Ramapo’s Adult Student Housing zone is legal and that town agencies properly approved the 12 buildings with 60 apartments and an education center built by Mosdos Chofetz Chaim.
Legal action taken in 2004 by four villages against Ramapo’s adult student housing mushroomed into challenges of environmental and other approval issues concerning the yeshiva’s housing purportedly for students and their families.
The panel upheld a Supreme Court justice’s decision holding Ramapo in civil contempt of his order to not allow more than 16 families to move into the development.
The four-judge panel rejected a $250-a-day fine set by Justice Francis Nicolai and ordered Nicolai to hold a hearing on a penalty. The judges overruled Nicolai’s decision to block the Building Department from approving certificate of occupancies for more than 16 apartments.
“These decisions put to rest after eight years of litigation all the issues about the priority of the adult student housing law and the Grandview Avenue project,” Town Attorney Michael Klein said. “In essence, the court said the Town Board and its planning boards acted properly.”
Ramapo’s cost hit $1.7 million alone for lawyers to defend against the legal action taken in October 2004 by the villages of Wesley Hills, Chestnut Ridge, Montebello and Pomona. Officials opposed the housing zone on their borders and hired a White Plains law firm to challenge the zoning.
The villages can ask the Court of Appeals to hear an appeal. Attorneys for the villages could not be reached for comment.
Chofetz Chaim bought the 4.7 acres in 1997 after the federal government declared the Nike military property surplus. A settlement of a federal lawsuit against New Hempstead for blocking development placed the land back under Ramapo’s jurisdiction.
Nicolai upheld the adult student housing zone. After an appeal by the villages, the court ruled the Planning Board needed to study the development’s traffic and the impact on the neighborhood. The yeshiva said they already did the study.
Ramapo inspectors and attorneys for the villages convinced Nicolai in 2011 that the yeshiva filled at least 22 of 40 apartments in violation of town regulations and his orders. The Planning Board gave the project final approvals, legalizing the units, and declined to do the environmental reviews ordered by Nicolai.
lohud.com
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