July 26, 2005
Hasidim seek village status
By Victor Whitman
and Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
[email protected]
Kiamesha Lake – A Hasidic community plans to establish its own village in Sullivan County's biggest town, creating the first religious-based municipality in the region since the founding of Kiryas Joel nearly 30 years ago.
The Rockland County-based Viznitz sect filed papers with the Town of Thompson last week to incorporate as the Village of Ateres (meaning "Crown") off Route 42 between the Village of Monticello and South Fallsburg on Gibber Road. It would be the county's seventh village.
The group dropped off the petition and a $6,000 check at the Town Hall a few hours before the Sabbath on Friday, when Orthodox communities fast and devote themselves to prayer.
Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini said he had no inkling that they planned to make the move.
"I would predict there will be some litigation in this matter," Cellini said yesterday.
"I am not too thrilled about it."
Community leaders say Sullivan has nothing to fear from their future village.
"We are good neighbors; we pay our taxes and we contribute to the economy," said Chayim Fried while sitting at his dining room table yesterday.
Fried said the community wants more control over its zoning and building codes in planning another 200 to 300 homes or condominiums.
"We need certain things in here that they wouldn't allow, like local stores," he said.
The Viznitz sect is not affiliated with Kiryas Joel. It is based in the Town of Ramapo in Rockland County, where in 1990 it created the incorporated Village of Kaser, which has a population of 3,316 in just two-tenths of a square mile.
Kiryas Joel is itself the product of a zoning dispute. The community, which began as a small enclave in the Town of Monroe in the early 1970s, broke free as a largely autonomous village in 1977 after repeated clashes with town officials.
The Hasidim tend to live in closely knit communities, with multifamily housing concentrated around synagogues, ritual baths and kosher-food stores.
Two village proposals emerged last year in southern Orange County amid fear that the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel would seek to expand. Neighbors, who said they wanted to protect their area's zoning and character, petitioned to incorporate two new villages, one in Woodbury, the other in Blooming Grove.
Neither request has come to a vote. Opponents have filed lawsuits challenging both petitions on technical grounds.
The Thompson Town Board held a special meeting yesterday and had questions about the tax implications for the town and school district and is worried that shoddy buildings and apartment houses will proliferate.
The year-round Viznitz community in Sullivan has 37 box-framed homes. Most were built within the past three years and are 5,000-square-feet, multifamily dwellings. The total area of the village would be 377 acres. The taxable value of the properties is $8.9 million, which contributes roughly $269,000 annually in town, county and school taxes.
Cellini said he will schedule a hearing on Aug. 9. As the hearing officer, he has the power to veto the petition should he determine that it doesn't meet the technical requirements. The town is already looking closely at the petition.
The petition states that the community will have 596 residents, which is more than the 500 needed to incorporate as a village. However, more than 200 of names on the petition are listed as residents of 168 Yeshiva Road, a boys school at the former Gibber Hotel. The town's position is the 500 must be 18 or older and permanently reside in the village.
But the group's attorney, Terry Rice, who has handled several incorporation petitions in Rockland County, says that's not true.
"All they need is 500 regular inhabitants, men, women and children," he said.
The rules on forming a village
Under New York state law, an area with at least 500 "regular inhabitants" may incorporate as a village. The specified area cannot include part of any existing village or city. It also can't be larger than 5 square miles, unless its boundaries match those of a town or taxing district such as a fire district or school district. (Parts of more than one district can be cobbled together into a village larger than 5 square miles if those parts are all within a single town.)
"Regular inhabitants" means people of any age living in that area, except those who have homes elsewhere and are registered to vote at those other addresses.
A petition is filed with the town supervisor to start the process. The petition must be signed either by 20 percent of the area's qualified voters or by property owners whose combined land is worth at least half of the area's assessed value.
The supervisor must hold a hearing and then decide if the petition meets all technical requirements. If the petition is rejected, organizers can appeal to state Supreme Court. If it's approved, the town schedules a referendum for residents of the area that would form the village.
A simple majority of voters decides if a village is incorporated.
