היסטארישע אנעקסעישאן פון 507 אקער לאנד אין קרית יואל

Kiryas Joel annexation petition stalled by standoff over environmental review

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
Published: 12:00 PM - 03/05/14
Last updated: 12:02 PM - 03/05/14

More than two months after its filing, a petition to annex 507 acres of Monroe into Kiryas Joel remains stalled on a preliminary dispute over which board or agency will study the potential environmental impact of expanding Kiryas Joel.

Three boards — representing Kiryas Joel, Monroe and Monroe-Woodbury School District — each have asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to be named lead agency for the environmental review, while two elected officials have asked the DEC to put itself in charge to assure neutrality.

As of Wednesday, DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens, the arbiter of lead-agency conflicts, had yet to
make a decision, and appeared unlikely to do so for a few more weeks. DEC guidelines require him to decide within 20 days of getting “all pertinent information,” but his staff planned to request “supplemental information from the parties in this case in the next few days,” a DEC spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Oversight of the environmental study is being sharply contested because of the potential impact on property taxes, development, traffic and resources such as water and sewage treatment. Combined with a separate annexation reportedly being contemplated in Woodbury, Kiryas Joel stands to more than double in size.

Kiryas Joel made the initial request to be lead agency in late December, contending that it had the most at stake because it would provide services to the annexed land. It later backed out of an apparent deal to share oversight with the Monroe Town Board, telling Martens the arrangement was untenable.

“The Village Board is best situated to project the potential future development density and character of the lands proposed to be annexed, as well as to analyze the potential impacts of such likely future development,” its attorneys declared in a Feb. 7 letter.

Monroe’s attorney, Michael Donnelly, responded Feb. 14 by noting the town’s recent experience with environmental reviews and the impact the proposed annexation would have on contiguous town areas.
“Community character within the town will be directly and adversely impacted by the abrupt change in permissible density the annexation will authorize,” Donnelly wrote.

Monroe-Woodbury made its case to be lead agency on Jan. 29, telling Martens the border shift would cost the district more than $1 million in property taxes and amount to Monroe-Woodbury funding the move
.
Kiryas Joel’s attorneys contend Monroe-Woodbury is ineligible because only the Kiryas Joel and Monroe boards will vote on the annexation proposal.

The United Monroe citizens group, which opposes the bid to expand Kiryas Joel and plans to hire an attorney for the upcoming environmental review, said this week it had collected $15,000 in donations since posting a fundraising appeal on Facebook last Friday to cover legal expenses.

Assemblyman James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, and state Sen. William Larkin Jr., R-Cornwall-on-Hudson, each have written letters asking Martens to designate either Monroe-Woodbury or the DEC as lead agency.

Steven Barshov, the Manhattan attorney representing the property owners who petitioned for annexation, urged Martens to choose Kiryas Joel.

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By Chris McKenna

Times Herald-Record
Posted Nov. 14, 2014 @ 8:17 pm

MONROE - A fleet of construction vehicles dispatched before dawn on Friday demolished the remains of a cluster of trailers that had been used as a school and synagogue by a Kiryas Joel dissident group and that were heavily damaged by fire earlier this week.

Roughly a dozen trailers had straddled a Town of Monroe property owned by dissident leader Ziggy Brach and Kiryas Joel land owned by a rabbinical college that the village's majority faction uses. Congregation Sheri Torah had used them for several years, without formal approval by the town or village, as a temporary girls school and synagogue. The school recently relocated to a large, new building in the Town of Monroe, but roughly 100 congregation members continue to use a double-wide as a shul.

About 75 firefighters from seven departments battled a blaze that swept through the trailers on Monday. Two days later, Kiryas Joel officials reminded the property owners they had been ordered on Sept. 2 to remove the trailers within 30 days, and demanded they be vacated.

After Friday's early morning demolition, the trailers were reduced to rubble when Monroe Building Inspector Benigno Maldonado reached the scene around 8 a.m. Maldonado, who had cited the property owners for the unapproved trailers on Oct. 28, said afterward that he didn't order the demolition and that most of the trailers were in Kiryas Joel, outside his jurisdiction.

It was unclear on Friday who had carried out the demolition. Orange County fire officials couldn't be reached to discuss their investigation into the cause of the fire.

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