Saturday, October 17, 2015
A growing dispute: Chestnut Ridge issue only a small part of a larger fight
Bloomingburg is changing. The village of 400 in the southeastern corner of Sullivan County will have 45 new families as soon as this month. Eventually, it will have 396 new families in one new development. All or most of those families will be Hasidic Jews, and the village population could grow to more than 3,000.
The change does not come gently. The once-sleepy village has been rocked by years of lawsuits dedicated to stopping Chestnut Ridge, a high-density town house development alleged by its opponents to have been approved by deceptive means.
The battle to keep families from moving into Chestnut Ridge is over - 45 certificates of occupancy allow residents to move in as soon as their closing papers are completed. Many of the lawsuits related to Chestnut Ridge and developer Shalom Lamm’s many projects have concluded. The village is moving forward, but a greater war - for justice, for fair dealings, for respect between clashing cultures - wages on.
“Some of the big battles, the big legal battles, are over, but not all of them,” Bloomingburg Village Attorney Steve Mogel said.
The most vocal opponents of Lamm and his partners are digging in to their trenches. They're forming plans for a new system of government in the Town of Mamakating, which encompasses Bloomingburg. They're doing what they can to prevent their community from becoming another Kiryas Joel - and to assist or encourage law enforcement to press charges against what they still see as an illegal development.
A promising beginning
It all started with a golf course. In 2006, local developer and former Mamakating town supervisor Duane Roe partnered with developers Lamm and Kenneth Nakdimen for what Roe publicly said would be a golf course community with 125 high-end seasonal homes. Land for the future Chestnut Ridge development was annexed into the village and its zoning changed. Only in 2012, when the first unit was built, did the general public realize the development would, in fact, include 396 town houses, and no golf course - even though the development of 396 homes had been approved in 2009 by the Bloomingburg Planning Board and in 2010 by the Village Board, at meetings that were sparsely attended.
“From the very first day, it was one lie after another,” Burlingham resident John Kahrs said.
A confidential retention agreement signed by Roe and Nakdimen in May 2006 showed that Chestnut Ridge was always intended to be a 400-unit development on 200 acres. A high-density development goes against everything residents of the area want for their community, said Kahrs, who got involved in the Chestnut Ridge opposition movement in 2013. He and his wife moved to the hamlet of Burlingham, which has a Bloomingburg mailing address, because they liked the quiet country life and the privacy of spaced-out homes.
The threat to their “rural way of life” is the reason Kahrs and many others claim they are opposed to Chestnut Ridge, but Lamm was quick to condemn the community as anti-Semitic.
Battles lost
Anti-Semitism is a real phenomenon, said Mogel, who is Jewish, but the concern over Chestnut Ridge is how big it is, and the manner in which it started. Mogel, who is running for Town of Thompson judge, became village attorney in March 2014, when a new village board was elected in the wake of community protest over Chestnut Ridge. The board was buried in lawsuits from the beginning.
First there were election fraud lawsuits. Then a lawsuit challenging the legality of the annexation and the development. A lawsuit filed by Lamm alleged discrimination by the village and town governments.There’s a racketeering lawsuit filed by the village and town against Lamm and his partners. Mamakating even filed a lawsuit against Bloomingburg this summer in an attempt to prevent the village from issuing certificates of occupancy for Chestnut Ridge. Mogel has a file cabinet dedicated to Bloomingburg court files. Mamakating town supervisor Bill Herrmann has rows of cardboard boxes neatly organized in an office closet, filled with documents related to the town’s Chestnut Ridge and Shalom Lamm-related lawsuits.
The lawsuits have significantly slowed progress at Chestnut Ridge, but none of them has stopped it. Lawsuits brought against the developers have been dismissed, and there are no more legal obstacles to prevent the rest of the 396 homes from being built. Once some of the units are sold, construction will continue, according to Lamm, who says nothing about the development has been illegal. The majority of the 45 units are under contract, and closings are in progress. He expects families to start moving in by late October and through the rest of the fall.
Lamm has bought a significant amount of property in Bloomingburg, Mamakating and the surrounding area, and he said despite the community and government opposition that has stalled his local projects, he’s “here for the long haul.” He maintains that his projects are objectively good for the community, bringing in tax revenue.
“I think the logic of government cooperation with good development, with smart development, has gone out the window for a false ideology,” Lamm said.
Standing against corruption
Summitville resident and outspoken political cartoonist Andy Weil likened the last few decades of politics in Mamakating to Tammany Hall, the infamously corrupt political machine of New York City in the 19th and 20th centuries. A few families owned the town, and developers who helped them got to do whatever they wanted. It took a long time for people to wake up, but Weil said they finally stood up and took their town back when Supervisor Bill Herrmann and board members Matt Taylor and Brenda Giraldi were elected in 2013.
“We got great people in office right now, upstanding and honest people,” Weil said.
The board is working for the community, not just developers like Roe or Lamm, Taylor said. He never intended to get involved in politics, but he realized it was the best way to eradicate corruption from his town.
“One way to fight a corrupt government is to take over the government,” Taylor said.
While many residents are confident in their current town board, new families moving into Chestnut Ridge will know that their town government fought against their presence. Everything could change in the next voting cycle.
On the village level, people have come a long way from the shouting matches that used to dominate village board meetings. Mayor Frank Gerardi is looking forward, and trying to focus on the positive things in Bloomingburg’s future.
“We’re accomplishing our goals, and what I want to do is keep the community together,” Gerardi said.
It’s been a hard situation, the mayor said, but Chestnut Ridge will bring more income into Bloomingburg, and that income will pay for improvements like sidewalks and repairs.
“I think it will be for the better,” Gerardi said. “I think it will help get other things done.”
Not all Bloomingburg residents are upset about Chestnut Ridge. Bob Miller, who runs a used car lot and has lived in the village more than 70 years, said the Hasidic residents who have already moved into Bloomingburg don't bother him, and he doesn't think it makes a difference who moves in to Chestnut Ridge.
"Nothing bothers me," Miller said. "Everybody always tries to give everybody else a hard time."
It is residents from farther out in Mamakating who build up controversy between Hasidic and non-Hasidic community members, said Aaron Rabiner, Bloomingburg's only Hasidic village trustee.
"It's not a local thing," Rabiner said. "We don't feel it on a daily basis."
There is still progress to be made in Bloomingburg, Rabiner said, but "it's a great place and getting better."
Forward thinking
The level of participation in government is double what it used to be in Bloomingburg and Mamakating, Kahrs said, but it needs to be triple. In an effort to ensure fair governing in the future, and to stop elections from being dominated by a Hasidic or other form of bloc vote, Kahrs has submitted two propositions that will be on the November ballot - one to create a ward system for the election of the Mamakating town board, and one to increase board members from four to six. Instead of electing board members at-large from the whole town, a ward system would elect one board member per ward. The county board of elections and the state legislature would draw the ward map, and each ward would have approximately equal numbers of voters. Kahrs thinks using a ward system will ensure that each community within the town is fairly represented.
“We need to make sure we have the right people leading the community that look at the entire community and not just part of it,” Kahrs said.
But while Kahrs works to change the government, he and others also wait for the one agency that might still change everything - the FBI. Dozens of FBI agents raided Lamm’s offices in March 2014, allegedly investigating corruption in Lamm’s business dealings and voter fraud in the last two village election cycles. Herrmann said he believes the investigation is ongoing. An FBI spokesperson refused to confirm or deny the existence of a current investigation.
“Everybody in town is hoping the FBI is going to move in and do their thing,” Herrmann said.
It’s hard to sit and wait while those who have disrupted the community make money off their illegal activities, said Holly Roche, head of community activist organization Rural Community Coalition. After fighting two failed lawsuits against Lamm’s projects, Roche said RCC members are now waiting for the authorities to follow through on their investigation.
“You want to believe there’s some kind of justice and it’s hard to hold on to that,” Roche said.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20151017/NEWS/151019444
The change does not come gently. The once-sleepy village has been rocked by years of lawsuits dedicated to stopping Chestnut Ridge, a high-density town house development alleged by its opponents to have been approved by deceptive means.
The battle to keep families from moving into Chestnut Ridge is over - 45 certificates of occupancy allow residents to move in as soon as their closing papers are completed. Many of the lawsuits related to Chestnut Ridge and developer Shalom Lamm’s many projects have concluded. The village is moving forward, but a greater war - for justice, for fair dealings, for respect between clashing cultures - wages on.
“Some of the big battles, the big legal battles, are over, but not all of them,” Bloomingburg Village Attorney Steve Mogel said.
The most vocal opponents of Lamm and his partners are digging in to their trenches. They're forming plans for a new system of government in the Town of Mamakating, which encompasses Bloomingburg. They're doing what they can to prevent their community from becoming another Kiryas Joel - and to assist or encourage law enforcement to press charges against what they still see as an illegal development.
A promising beginning
It all started with a golf course. In 2006, local developer and former Mamakating town supervisor Duane Roe partnered with developers Lamm and Kenneth Nakdimen for what Roe publicly said would be a golf course community with 125 high-end seasonal homes. Land for the future Chestnut Ridge development was annexed into the village and its zoning changed. Only in 2012, when the first unit was built, did the general public realize the development would, in fact, include 396 town houses, and no golf course - even though the development of 396 homes had been approved in 2009 by the Bloomingburg Planning Board and in 2010 by the Village Board, at meetings that were sparsely attended.
“From the very first day, it was one lie after another,” Burlingham resident John Kahrs said.
A confidential retention agreement signed by Roe and Nakdimen in May 2006 showed that Chestnut Ridge was always intended to be a 400-unit development on 200 acres. A high-density development goes against everything residents of the area want for their community, said Kahrs, who got involved in the Chestnut Ridge opposition movement in 2013. He and his wife moved to the hamlet of Burlingham, which has a Bloomingburg mailing address, because they liked the quiet country life and the privacy of spaced-out homes.
The threat to their “rural way of life” is the reason Kahrs and many others claim they are opposed to Chestnut Ridge, but Lamm was quick to condemn the community as anti-Semitic.
Battles lost
Anti-Semitism is a real phenomenon, said Mogel, who is Jewish, but the concern over Chestnut Ridge is how big it is, and the manner in which it started. Mogel, who is running for Town of Thompson judge, became village attorney in March 2014, when a new village board was elected in the wake of community protest over Chestnut Ridge. The board was buried in lawsuits from the beginning.
First there were election fraud lawsuits. Then a lawsuit challenging the legality of the annexation and the development. A lawsuit filed by Lamm alleged discrimination by the village and town governments.There’s a racketeering lawsuit filed by the village and town against Lamm and his partners. Mamakating even filed a lawsuit against Bloomingburg this summer in an attempt to prevent the village from issuing certificates of occupancy for Chestnut Ridge. Mogel has a file cabinet dedicated to Bloomingburg court files. Mamakating town supervisor Bill Herrmann has rows of cardboard boxes neatly organized in an office closet, filled with documents related to the town’s Chestnut Ridge and Shalom Lamm-related lawsuits.
The lawsuits have significantly slowed progress at Chestnut Ridge, but none of them has stopped it. Lawsuits brought against the developers have been dismissed, and there are no more legal obstacles to prevent the rest of the 396 homes from being built. Once some of the units are sold, construction will continue, according to Lamm, who says nothing about the development has been illegal. The majority of the 45 units are under contract, and closings are in progress. He expects families to start moving in by late October and through the rest of the fall.
Lamm has bought a significant amount of property in Bloomingburg, Mamakating and the surrounding area, and he said despite the community and government opposition that has stalled his local projects, he’s “here for the long haul.” He maintains that his projects are objectively good for the community, bringing in tax revenue.
“I think the logic of government cooperation with good development, with smart development, has gone out the window for a false ideology,” Lamm said.
Standing against corruption
Summitville resident and outspoken political cartoonist Andy Weil likened the last few decades of politics in Mamakating to Tammany Hall, the infamously corrupt political machine of New York City in the 19th and 20th centuries. A few families owned the town, and developers who helped them got to do whatever they wanted. It took a long time for people to wake up, but Weil said they finally stood up and took their town back when Supervisor Bill Herrmann and board members Matt Taylor and Brenda Giraldi were elected in 2013.
“We got great people in office right now, upstanding and honest people,” Weil said.
The board is working for the community, not just developers like Roe or Lamm, Taylor said. He never intended to get involved in politics, but he realized it was the best way to eradicate corruption from his town.
“One way to fight a corrupt government is to take over the government,” Taylor said.
While many residents are confident in their current town board, new families moving into Chestnut Ridge will know that their town government fought against their presence. Everything could change in the next voting cycle.
On the village level, people have come a long way from the shouting matches that used to dominate village board meetings. Mayor Frank Gerardi is looking forward, and trying to focus on the positive things in Bloomingburg’s future.
“We’re accomplishing our goals, and what I want to do is keep the community together,” Gerardi said.
It’s been a hard situation, the mayor said, but Chestnut Ridge will bring more income into Bloomingburg, and that income will pay for improvements like sidewalks and repairs.
“I think it will be for the better,” Gerardi said. “I think it will help get other things done.”
Not all Bloomingburg residents are upset about Chestnut Ridge. Bob Miller, who runs a used car lot and has lived in the village more than 70 years, said the Hasidic residents who have already moved into Bloomingburg don't bother him, and he doesn't think it makes a difference who moves in to Chestnut Ridge.
"Nothing bothers me," Miller said. "Everybody always tries to give everybody else a hard time."
It is residents from farther out in Mamakating who build up controversy between Hasidic and non-Hasidic community members, said Aaron Rabiner, Bloomingburg's only Hasidic village trustee.
"It's not a local thing," Rabiner said. "We don't feel it on a daily basis."
There is still progress to be made in Bloomingburg, Rabiner said, but "it's a great place and getting better."
Forward thinking
The level of participation in government is double what it used to be in Bloomingburg and Mamakating, Kahrs said, but it needs to be triple. In an effort to ensure fair governing in the future, and to stop elections from being dominated by a Hasidic or other form of bloc vote, Kahrs has submitted two propositions that will be on the November ballot - one to create a ward system for the election of the Mamakating town board, and one to increase board members from four to six. Instead of electing board members at-large from the whole town, a ward system would elect one board member per ward. The county board of elections and the state legislature would draw the ward map, and each ward would have approximately equal numbers of voters. Kahrs thinks using a ward system will ensure that each community within the town is fairly represented.
“We need to make sure we have the right people leading the community that look at the entire community and not just part of it,” Kahrs said.
But while Kahrs works to change the government, he and others also wait for the one agency that might still change everything - the FBI. Dozens of FBI agents raided Lamm’s offices in March 2014, allegedly investigating corruption in Lamm’s business dealings and voter fraud in the last two village election cycles. Herrmann said he believes the investigation is ongoing. An FBI spokesperson refused to confirm or deny the existence of a current investigation.
“Everybody in town is hoping the FBI is going to move in and do their thing,” Herrmann said.
It’s hard to sit and wait while those who have disrupted the community make money off their illegal activities, said Holly Roche, head of community activist organization Rural Community Coalition. After fighting two failed lawsuits against Lamm’s projects, Roche said RCC members are now waiting for the authorities to follow through on their investigation.
“You want to believe there’s some kind of justice and it’s hard to hold on to that,” Roche said.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20151017/NEWS/151019444
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