Monday, September 07, 2015
Long-awaited vote set on Kiryas Joel annexation proposals
After 20 months of rancor over the proposed expansion of Kiryas Joel, the five-member Monroe Town Board will meet Tuesday night in a Kiryas Joel banquet hall to decide the fate of two petitions to annex either 507 acres or 164 acres into Kiryas Joel from Monroe.
Town Supervisor Harley Doles and Monroe's four councilmen have made no public statements about how they will vote.
Michael Donnelly, the Goshen attorney advising the board on the annexation efforts, said last week that he had drafted four different resolutions to prepare for any outcome. Each one outlines rationales for those decisions based on the voluminous data and commentary that the issue has generated.
Doles couldn't be reached Monday to discuss how he plans to vote. Councilmen Gerard McQuade and Dan Burke both said they were keeping their minds open until Tuesday's meeting and declined to say which direction they were leaning. Both said they would share their reasoning with the audience before voting.
Councilmen Dennis McWatters and Richard Colon couldn't be reached.
Doles had said last week that he expected to hold a joint meeting with the Kiryas Joel Village Board. The idea was for the two boards to vote on the petitions in succession at the same place.
But that turned out not to be the case. The Village Board made its decision on Sunday night.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said by email that the board met at 6 p.m. and approved both annexation petitions.
It also approved a 49-page findings statement that concluded the village's environmental review and identified the 507-acre proposal as "the preferred alternative."
That leaves three possibilities when the Monroe board meets at 7 p.m. at Bais Rachel Paradise Hall in Kiryas Joel.
The board could:
- Approve the 507-acre annexation;
- Support only the 164-acre annexation proposal, which is a subset of the larger petition;
- Oppose both requests.
Approval requires the vote of at least three board members. Approval of either annexation proposal sets the stage for a referendum among residents of the annexation area, who are certain to approve it.
If the Monroe board rejects either petition, Kiryas Joel could challenge that decision in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. Annexation opponents plan to sue if either petition is approved.
Opponents criticized Doles' selection of the Kiryas Joel banquet hall for the vote last week, arguing that people from outside the Satmar Hasidic were unfamiliar with it and that the site has too little parking. Monroe-Woodbury Superintendent Elsie Rodriguez offered one of the district's school auditoriums instead.
Doles told the Times Herald-Record on Friday that Bais Rachel could hold a crowd of 800 and was the largest available venue.
By comparison, he said, Pine Tree Elementary School could accommodate about 300 people.
Monroe-Woodbury High School in Woodbury is much larger, but Donnelly advised the board that the meeting had to take place in the Town of Monroe.
The land fight began in December 2013 when a group of homeowners and investors with vacant land tracts outside Kiryas Joel petitioned to annex 507 acres into Kiryas Joel from Monroe, a proposal that would enlarge the village by almost 75 percent.
The same group later filed a similar petition for a portion of that land, leaving the Kiryas Joel and Monroe board with two overlapping requests.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150907/NEWS/150909508
Town Supervisor Harley Doles and Monroe's four councilmen have made no public statements about how they will vote.
Michael Donnelly, the Goshen attorney advising the board on the annexation efforts, said last week that he had drafted four different resolutions to prepare for any outcome. Each one outlines rationales for those decisions based on the voluminous data and commentary that the issue has generated.
Doles couldn't be reached Monday to discuss how he plans to vote. Councilmen Gerard McQuade and Dan Burke both said they were keeping their minds open until Tuesday's meeting and declined to say which direction they were leaning. Both said they would share their reasoning with the audience before voting.
Councilmen Dennis McWatters and Richard Colon couldn't be reached.
Doles had said last week that he expected to hold a joint meeting with the Kiryas Joel Village Board. The idea was for the two boards to vote on the petitions in succession at the same place.
But that turned out not to be the case. The Village Board made its decision on Sunday night.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said by email that the board met at 6 p.m. and approved both annexation petitions.
It also approved a 49-page findings statement that concluded the village's environmental review and identified the 507-acre proposal as "the preferred alternative."
That leaves three possibilities when the Monroe board meets at 7 p.m. at Bais Rachel Paradise Hall in Kiryas Joel.
The board could:
- Approve the 507-acre annexation;
- Support only the 164-acre annexation proposal, which is a subset of the larger petition;
- Oppose both requests.
Approval requires the vote of at least three board members. Approval of either annexation proposal sets the stage for a referendum among residents of the annexation area, who are certain to approve it.
If the Monroe board rejects either petition, Kiryas Joel could challenge that decision in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. Annexation opponents plan to sue if either petition is approved.
Opponents criticized Doles' selection of the Kiryas Joel banquet hall for the vote last week, arguing that people from outside the Satmar Hasidic were unfamiliar with it and that the site has too little parking. Monroe-Woodbury Superintendent Elsie Rodriguez offered one of the district's school auditoriums instead.
Doles told the Times Herald-Record on Friday that Bais Rachel could hold a crowd of 800 and was the largest available venue.
By comparison, he said, Pine Tree Elementary School could accommodate about 300 people.
Monroe-Woodbury High School in Woodbury is much larger, but Donnelly advised the board that the meeting had to take place in the Town of Monroe.
The land fight began in December 2013 when a group of homeowners and investors with vacant land tracts outside Kiryas Joel petitioned to annex 507 acres into Kiryas Joel from Monroe, a proposal that would enlarge the village by almost 75 percent.
The same group later filed a similar petition for a portion of that land, leaving the Kiryas Joel and Monroe board with two overlapping requests.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150907/NEWS/150909508
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