Friday, June 23, 2006
High-density Kiryas Joel housing votes rejected
The controversial high-density housing proposal the Woodbury Town Board pushed through last year, ostensibly to block an even higher-density expansion by neighboring Kiryas Joel, could collapse after a court ruling this week.
On Monday, acting state Supreme Court Justice Elaine Slobod threw out a series of Nov. 3 votes by the board that would allow developers to build 451 homes near Monroe-Woodbury High School - nearly three times the amount of houses possible under the existing law.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit brought by project neighbors. They argued the town had skirted the objections of county planners and various plans for growth, including its own 1988 master plan, to force the massive development through the system.
Propelling the request was an ultimatum by Pearl River-based builder Bill Brodsky, who said he might sell the property to developers from Kiryas Joel if he couldn't get the higher density on the 398-acre patch of woods and fields off Dunderberg Road.
That stirred fears that land around the Hasidic community of 18,000 would one day give way to the tightly packed condominiums typical within its 1.1 square miles. So Woodbury leaders wound up supporting high-density housing while most local town halls were doing everything they could to put the brakes on development.
But in their rush to push the plan through with a 4-1 vote five days before Election Day, the Town Board failed to send the proper documents to the county planning department, which opposed the plan, Slobod said.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/06/23/news-bsdecision-06-23.html
The controversial high-density housing proposal the Woodbury Town Board pushed through last year, ostensibly to block an even higher-density expansion by neighboring Kiryas Joel, could collapse after a court ruling this week.
On Monday, acting state Supreme Court Justice Elaine Slobod threw out a series of Nov. 3 votes by the board that would allow developers to build 451 homes near Monroe-Woodbury High School - nearly three times the amount of houses possible under the existing law.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit brought by project neighbors. They argued the town had skirted the objections of county planners and various plans for growth, including its own 1988 master plan, to force the massive development through the system.
Propelling the request was an ultimatum by Pearl River-based builder Bill Brodsky, who said he might sell the property to developers from Kiryas Joel if he couldn't get the higher density on the 398-acre patch of woods and fields off Dunderberg Road.
That stirred fears that land around the Hasidic community of 18,000 would one day give way to the tightly packed condominiums typical within its 1.1 square miles. So Woodbury leaders wound up supporting high-density housing while most local town halls were doing everything they could to put the brakes on development.
But in their rush to push the plan through with a 4-1 vote five days before Election Day, the Town Board failed to send the proper documents to the county planning department, which opposed the plan, Slobod said.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/06/23/news-bsdecision-06-23.html
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