Grassroots groups fighting development in Ramapo
RAMAPO - A year ago, a grassroots group called CUPON was formed by a Hillcrest resident who saw an urgent need to keep the area's development in check.
Since then, that group has helped a handful of similar organizations spring up around Ramapo, a town with a long history of civic activism. They all share concerns similar to CUPON's, which stands for Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods.
"What we wanted to do is, instead of having a big CUPON for Ramapo, we wanted an individual area to have its own CUPON-like organization," said Micheal Miller, who started the group in Hillcrest and has subsequently helped organize other neighborhoods. "Then, if you go to a (municipal board) meeting, you're going to be representatives of your area," he said. "That carries much more weight than if we go as one organization."
Ramapo is Rockland County's fastest-growing town, home to an estimated 126,595 people with 12 villages. In recent months, new groups focused on controlling development have formed in such areas as Monsey, New Hempstead, Airmont and Chestnut Ridge.
"The goal is to empower the other members of the community," said Hilda Kogut, who launched CUPON Chestnut Ridge this spring, noting that many of her fellow villagers have begun speaking up at village meetings about their concerns. "We're making some progress."
What activists are up against is substantial: More than 3,000 homes are proposed or could be proposed for large pieces of land that changed hands in recent years, according to Miller, who compiled the information based on property sale records and other sources. In addition to the 197-acre property in the Route 202-306 corridor just outside of Pomona where the controversial 479-unit Patrick Farm development was proposed, the list of parcels include the 130-acre Minisceongo Golf Club property on Pomona Road and the 145-acre former Edwin Gould Academy site in Chestnut Ridge.
Based on ongoing trends, those properties could potentially be developed into higher-density housing catering to Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox Jewish families from outside the county, Miller said.
Activists say uncontrolled, rapid growth would exacerbate traffic congestion and put further pressure on infrastructure and resources.
"They are bringing in Brooklyn to Ramapo," Miller said. "It’s going to become an extension of New York City."
Orthodox Jews share concern
Tension between religious and non-religious communities has been on the rise in Rockland for the past several years, fueled by strained relations between members of the East Ramapo school community and its school board, which is controlled by Orthodox Jewish residents who send their children to private schools.
But over-development is a shared concern in her Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, said Shani Bechhofer of Monsey, who has lived in a community called Viola Estates for more than a decade. A major housing development, also called Viola Estates, is under construction on a nearby 5.5-acre property on Viola Road, even though Bechhofer and her neighbors expressed their opposition before the Ramapo Planning Board, she said.
They formed a grassroots organization, Viola Estates Residents Allied for Integrity, which is also being assisted by Miller.
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"The more we were educated, the more we began to understand the issues that are affecting us, not just this development," Bechhofer said. "That’s why we named our organization 'Allied for Integrity.'"
Bechhofer said she was "disheartened" by the town's response when she and her neighbors reported to officials that more units than planned were being built there. The property, formerly owned by Temple Beth El, was originally zoned for single-family homes allowing 1.74 units per acre, or a total 10 units for the site. In July 2013, the developer was granted a zone change to allow for eight units per acre, or 44 units on 5.5 acres.
As construction moved along, neighbors saw that the basements in each unit had been turned into what they saw as accessory apartments, according to a letter they sent to the town. Ramapo officials acknowledged the work done was not according to the plans but, instead of requiring the developer to follow the existing plans, officials approved revised plans that included a "finished lower level."
In June, three neighbors sued Ramapo town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, Building Inspector Anthony Mallia and Viola Gardens LLC., the owner of the property, over the issue. Town Attorney Michael Klein has told The Journal News the lawsuit lacks merit. Attorney Steven Mogel, who was recently retained by the neighbors, said Friday that the lawsuit, filed in Putnam County Court to avoid any potential conflict in Rockland County Court, was expected to be discontinued because of procedural issues, but "it doesn't mean that the efforts that the neighbors have engaged in are over."
Miller, for his part, has been leading the effort to stop a 20-unit housing development, Bluefield Extension, on the 1-acre site on the east side of Union Road in Hillcrest, along the Monsey border. The property was originally zoned for single-family homes.
"This would set a precedent," Miller said. "If they are allowed to build that, they can come into Hillcrest and do the same thing where they want to."
Difficult balance
From 2000 to 2010, Ramapo's total population grew by 16.2 percent, while the statewide population grew 2.1 percent and the county's grew 8.7 percent. The biggest increases within Ramapo were seen in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish villages of New Square and Kaser, which grew by 50.2 percent and 42.5 percent, respectively. Montebello village saw a 22.7 percent increase, and unincorporated Ramapo, including Monsey and Hillcrest, grew by 20.9 percent.
In addition to over-development, community activists keep an eye on issues such as illegal conversions of homes, zoning and code violations, and so-called "blockbusting," the practice of persuading homeowners to sell their property cheaply by suggesting that changes in neighborhood demographics will destroy their property values.
"Some of the villages and areas are going through all of those issues, while others are going through only some of them," Miller said. "But, eventually, every one of them is going to affect every area."
Leaders of the newly formed community groups say they want town officials to stop "spot zoning" — which they think has become too common — to accommodate high-density housing development. They also want officials to enforce zoning codes more stringently.
Kogut, a retired FBI special agent who moved to Rockland decades ago as a child, said she doesn't want her community to be overcrowded.
“If we were constructing homes for people in this county who had no place to live, I would not have been so offended," she said.
Klein, the town attorney, said the town is trying meet the needs of different groups, the largest town in New York state outside of several on Long Island.
"We have many groups in the town who criticize us for not providing enough housing and enough development. We have other groups in the community that criticize us for providing too much development. So it’s a difficult balance that the Town Board needs to strike between what is appropriate, manageable development, and what might not be," he said. "While I understand people have different views, particularly where it affects their immediate community, many people have different opinions on what’s appropriate development and what’s not."
Bechhofer said she simply wanted rules to be followed.
"It’s not about 'not in my backyard.' It’s really about 'we want to raise our family in a town where rules are followed,'" she said. "We want to educate our children to respect the law. It’s very important to us."