KIRYAS JOEL — Does KJ have a ZBA?

A new lawsuit against Kiryas Joel and its main religious institution raises the question of whether the village has a legitimate zoning board of appeals to settle zoning disputes and grant relief from local codes.

Such panels are standard features of local government.

But the plaintiffs say the four men who convened as a Zoning Board to hear their case in April were also identified as members of the village's Planning Board — in violation of a federal court order prohibiting Kiryas Joel residents from serving on multiple municipal boards.

The lawsuit was brought by a dissident group that was evicted from its synagogue in December after a long-running court battle with the dominant congregation in the Satmar Hasidic community.

According to court papers, the group, known as Bais Yoel Ohel Feige, applied in February to argue why it should be allowed back in its synagogue.

Two months later, four Zoning Board members met on a Sunday night to hear the matter. And for 90 minutes, none of them spoke, except to spell their names, according to the meeting tran; lawyers and the village administrator did all the talking.

That the four men were also said to be Planning Board members violates a 1997 court order that settled a previous dispute between a dissident congregation and village authorities.

Having concluded that the village lacks a "duly constituted" zoning board, the plaintiffs are asking a state judge to hear their case for reopening the synagogue.

The dispute involves a dissident sanctuary with an improbable location: it's joined to the giant, 33-year-old synagogue where the dominant Congregation Yetev Lev worships.

The dissident outpost was built as an apartment for Satmar Rebbe and Kiryas Joel founder Joel Teitelbaum and later given to the dissidents by Teitelbaum's widow.

After winning a court ruling last year, the main congregation shut off utilities to the Bais Yoel synagogue, then sent in a backhoe to rip out the dissidents' septic holding tank. But furious dissidents stayed put until state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Owen threatened to jail their leaders in December.

Owen had ruled that the group needed belated approval from the village to use a former residence as a house of worship.

But dissidents argue in their new lawsuit that their synagogue was already permitted under the Town of Monroe's 1975 approval for the entire building.

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