By SULAIMAN BEG AND STEVE LIEBERMAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: March 11, 2006)

NEW SQUARE

Fifty-two years ago, a Hasidic grand rabbi living in Brooklyn sent a band of followers to eastern Ramapo.

The settlers lived in makeshift homes and tents before they began building what would become New Square on 130 acres of farmland.

Once the building started, it never stopped.

The construction grew more erratic, with additions on homes practically touching neighboring structures. Three- and four-story multifamily homes — which under state code can't be more than two stories — proliferated, and commercial businesses lay hidden in residential homes.

What hasn't changed during the past decades are the complaints by Ramapo fire officials about violations of the zoning and fire safety codes.

Typically, villages hire building and fire inspectors to enforce local and state codes. New Square has a fire inspector, Bill Press, but it is clear to outside officials that enforcement was not carried out. Press did not return calls for comment.

Three years ago, pressed by the Moleston Fire District and the county's fire and emergency services coordinator, New York state intervened and began inspecting the village, the state's fastest growing community.

A partial state survey estimated that more than 80 buildings failed to meet state fire and safety codes. New Square did not adopt the state codes — which are mandatory for all municipalities — until last year, and only after pressure from the state.

Some progress has been made since the state intervened. Newer housing now meets state fire codes with added sprinkler systems, and an architect goes over building plans for new structures.

But the past remains, with older housing and apartments packed together, creating concerns for firefighters. Fire officials say building congestion prevents trucks and volunteers from getting to homes where numerous families live. In many cases, unmarked commercial businesses are inside.

"It's a death trap," said Rockland Fire and Emergency Services Coordinator Gordon Wren Jr., a Hillcrest firefighter. "The houses are so close together, one fire could easily spread. You think you are going into a one-family house, you don't expect to find a commercial business.

"On a windy night, eventually it's going to go down."

Last year, the Hillcrest Fire Department, which covers the village, responded to 69 calls — 33 of which were for fires.

Moleston Fire District officials, who run the Fire Department, declined to comment.

New Square officials insist they are working with the state and fire officials to ensure new construction meets the codes. They say any dangerous buildings are repaired and sprinkler systems are installed where needed in homes, schools, businesses and houses of worship. Also, an architect has been hired to review building plans.

They said that what happened previously came under a different administration with a different outlook on construction.

"There are improvements to be done, but I would not call them problems," Deputy Mayor Israel Spitzer said recently. "Everything is now being done in accordance with the zoning and fire codes. We're working with the issues of the past, but you can't expect to make all of the past disappear within one day."

He said the village has good relations with the Fire Department.

"We're very concerned about the safety of our residents," he said.

The monitoring of the village is being led by Roy Scott, assistant director for regional services in the New York Department of State's Division of Code Enforcement and Administration. The agency steps in when a municipality is not enforcing fire and safety codes.

In November 2003, Scott told the Moleston Fire District that "The violations in the village of New Square are probably the worst example in our state's history of noncompliance with the state codes."

Since then, Scott said, the village has come a long way. He said the more than 80 homes that failed to comply with state codes adopted in 1984 were going for variances in front of a regional board of review.

"It's not going to be solved overnight," he said. "Every new building that they've built has complied. They're doing everything in their power to improve the program. It's as good as any village in the state."

Conditions may have slightly improved, Wren said, pointing out new vinyl-sided construction with metal staircases and signs outside businesses.

"But the problems remain in more than a hundred buildings and for the thousands of people living in those conditions," Wren said.

In a densely populated community where streets are named after presidents, the houses range from older ones with multilevel wooden appendages to large newly built three- and four-story homes.

On the outskirts of the village is cleared land, with piles of earth and rock for future construction.

Wren said one solution would be for the state to recommend tearing down the old homes so they could be rebuilt in compliance.

Scott said that would be impossible given the number of people who would be left homeless.

On a recent drive into the village, which can be entered and exited only from Washington Avenue, Wren pointed out a girls school that was being added onto. Construction trailers blocked any entrance for firetrucks.

"How are you going to get in there? You got kids trapped in there," he said. "People are going to die."

Along Eisenhower Avenue sits a house with 10 electric meters, a common sight in the village. Twenty-six wooden steps — in one straight flight — lead up to a third-floor apartment on Reagan Lane.

A large boys yeshiva at the rear of the village, next to the community's cemetery, has one entrance and exit.

It has no fire lane, and the narrow, unpaved pathway that goes around the building would be unnavigable for a firetruck.

Abraham Breuer, 24, who runs John to Go Inc., said previous administrations worked to solve the housing need and "built street by street."

"In New Square, you have to realize, there are a lot of kids," the lifelong resident said. "They didn't realize certain things and just built quickly."

Phil Rubin has lived on Stella Drive bordering New Square for 40 years and at one time did work in the village. He said he was worried about the village's development and growth.

"They have illegal housing," said Rubin, 72. "They build things inside there that wouldn't be allowed outside the village. If trees catch on fire, there's no saying it won't jump through to here
."


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