<$BlogRSDURL$>

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Another stop work order in Bloomingburg for Shalom Lamm 

In yet another legal obstacle for the controversial 396-unit Hasidic development in Bloomingburg, the Town of Mamakating has issued a stop work order on a building that was supposed to be used for a Mikvah — a ritual purification bath — for the development.

The town acted after workers apparently began construction on the building owned by developer Shalom Lamm without planning board approval or a building permit, says Town of Mamakating Supervisor Bill Herrmann.

Lamm appeared before the Mamakating Planning Board last week to present the project that would be built at 51 Winterton Road, just a few hundred feet from the development where a judge just halted most construction on an unrelated legal matter.

When the town building inspector, Mary Grass, went to look at the building, she saw construction had begun. So she ordered work stopped until the town granted the necessary approvals.

"They had no permit and they knew they needed one," Herrmann said. "It's very difficult to deal with someone who skirts around the rule of law."

This latest legal entanglement means much of the construction has been stopped on the Villages of Chestnut Ridge and its related projects — all of which have drawn waves of protest in eastern Sullivan County and the surrounding area from residents who fear it would overwhelm them and change their rural way of life.

On Friday, a Sullivan County Supreme Court Judge ordered virtually all work stopped on the town house development until a March hearing. Opponents argue that the residents of the land annexed from Mamakating into Bloomingburg for the development had their constitutional rights violated because they didn't get a chance to vote on the annexation.

Last month, Bloomingburg Building Inspector Michael Grass (Mary's husband) stopped work on a Main Street building owned by Lamm that will have new businesses to serve the development. The building didn't have planning board approval to change its use from mixed commercial to retail, said Grass.

In December, the Bloomingburg Planning Board voted down a proposal for a private girls' school that would serve Chestnut Ridge — a vote that brought a lawsuit from Lamm, who essentially said the board bowed to pressure from residents motivated by anti-Hasidic bigotry, since zoning allows the school.

While Lamm declined to comment on the stop-work orders, he did say last week he is "very optimistic" his development group would "prevail'' in the March hearing about the restraining order on work on his development.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140204/NEWS/402040328&cid=sitesearch

Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Google
Chaptzem! Blog

-