Saturday, September 03, 2016
1,500 new homes proposed for Kiryas Joel
A wealthy businessman who owns the last major patch of undeveloped land in Kiryas Joel is negotiating with developers to build as many as 1,500 homes on it, a project that could help relieve the community's constant housing demand while avoiding further conflicts over attempts to expand the village.
The two Yiddish weekly newspapers serving the Satmar Hasidic community both trumpeted the news on their front pages this week, along with a drawing of a condominium complex that would be built on a strip of land across Nininger Road from the state police barracks in Monroe. The 68 acres on which those homes would be built are separated from the rest of Kiryas Joel by County Route 105 and appear to be outside the village, given the dense housing development on one side of the road and largely untouched woods on the other.
The land is indeed part of Kiryas Joel and belongs to Irving Bauer, a Mount Kisco resident who acquired the property in 1989 and has resisted pleas to develop it until now. Last year, in the midst of a contentious review of two petitions to expand Kiryas Joel through annexation, the Sullivan County attorney representing Bauer in a long-running court battle with Orange County said his client was "land-banking" his Kiryas Joel property, "confident that its value is increasing."
Bauer appears to have decided the price is now right.
His attorney, Gerald Orseck of Liberty, said Friday that Bauer is negotiating with developers with whom he intends to collaborate. Though the terms are undecided, Orseck said that the prospective developers already have made preliminary inquiries about their building plans and that village officials are "highly supportive."
"I expect this to go very, very quickly," he said.
Bauer himself refused to discuss his plans when reached by phone.
Joel Mann, a Kiryas Joel planning consultant whose firm drew the conceptual design for the housing plans, said he estimates that between 1,000 and 1,500 housing units could be built on the property, which he said had almost no wetlands and no steep slopes that would obstruct development. Formal plans could be submitted to the village within the next two months, Mann said. The project is reportedly named "Vayoel Moshe," the title of a 1961 book by Satmar founder Joel Teitelbaum.
Mann said that the Yiddish newspaper accounts of the plans had identified the prospective builders as MYM Management, a Kiryas Joel business whose CEO is listed as Mayer Indig in its incorporation records.
Orseck has represented Bauer in a costly lawsuit with Orange County over the value of a tiny sliver of his Kiryas Joel property, which the county seized in order to smooth a dangerous curve on Route 105 a decade ago. The county had valued the 1.5-acre piece of roadside at $33,000, while Bauer demanded $1.1 million. According to the court papers, Bauer's representatives had contended that just half of his 68 acres was worth $27 million then and that an estimated 1,044 housing units could be built on the entire tract.
A state Supreme Court judge sided with the county's $33,000 figure, but an appeals court panel overturned the ruling last year and ordered the parties to "recalculate" the property's value. The case is still pending in Supreme Court.
The new housing plans comes as two proposals to annex 507 acres or 164 acres into Kiryas Joel are tied up in litigation in Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. Last month, Kiryas Joel officials announced a new approach to expanding, saying that residents would soon petition the Orange County Legislature to create a new town that would consist of Kiryas Joel and 382 additional acres. As of Friday, no such petition had been submitted.
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20160902/1500-new-homes-proposed-for-kiryas-joel
The two Yiddish weekly newspapers serving the Satmar Hasidic community both trumpeted the news on their front pages this week, along with a drawing of a condominium complex that would be built on a strip of land across Nininger Road from the state police barracks in Monroe. The 68 acres on which those homes would be built are separated from the rest of Kiryas Joel by County Route 105 and appear to be outside the village, given the dense housing development on one side of the road and largely untouched woods on the other.
The land is indeed part of Kiryas Joel and belongs to Irving Bauer, a Mount Kisco resident who acquired the property in 1989 and has resisted pleas to develop it until now. Last year, in the midst of a contentious review of two petitions to expand Kiryas Joel through annexation, the Sullivan County attorney representing Bauer in a long-running court battle with Orange County said his client was "land-banking" his Kiryas Joel property, "confident that its value is increasing."
Bauer appears to have decided the price is now right.
His attorney, Gerald Orseck of Liberty, said Friday that Bauer is negotiating with developers with whom he intends to collaborate. Though the terms are undecided, Orseck said that the prospective developers already have made preliminary inquiries about their building plans and that village officials are "highly supportive."
"I expect this to go very, very quickly," he said.
Bauer himself refused to discuss his plans when reached by phone.
Joel Mann, a Kiryas Joel planning consultant whose firm drew the conceptual design for the housing plans, said he estimates that between 1,000 and 1,500 housing units could be built on the property, which he said had almost no wetlands and no steep slopes that would obstruct development. Formal plans could be submitted to the village within the next two months, Mann said. The project is reportedly named "Vayoel Moshe," the title of a 1961 book by Satmar founder Joel Teitelbaum.
Mann said that the Yiddish newspaper accounts of the plans had identified the prospective builders as MYM Management, a Kiryas Joel business whose CEO is listed as Mayer Indig in its incorporation records.
Orseck has represented Bauer in a costly lawsuit with Orange County over the value of a tiny sliver of his Kiryas Joel property, which the county seized in order to smooth a dangerous curve on Route 105 a decade ago. The county had valued the 1.5-acre piece of roadside at $33,000, while Bauer demanded $1.1 million. According to the court papers, Bauer's representatives had contended that just half of his 68 acres was worth $27 million then and that an estimated 1,044 housing units could be built on the entire tract.
A state Supreme Court judge sided with the county's $33,000 figure, but an appeals court panel overturned the ruling last year and ordered the parties to "recalculate" the property's value. The case is still pending in Supreme Court.
The new housing plans comes as two proposals to annex 507 acres or 164 acres into Kiryas Joel are tied up in litigation in Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. Last month, Kiryas Joel officials announced a new approach to expanding, saying that residents would soon petition the Orange County Legislature to create a new town that would consist of Kiryas Joel and 382 additional acres. As of Friday, no such petition had been submitted.
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20160902/1500-new-homes-proposed-for-kiryas-joel
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