Sunday, June 18, 2017
Kiryas Joel, United Monroe agree on new town
Leaders of the Village of Kiryas Joel and the United Monroe citizens group have reached an agreement that could end more than three years of conflict over the Hasidic community’s quest to expand and result in the creation of the first new town in New York in 35 years.
After more than two months of negotiations that intensified in the last couple weeks, the two sides have finalized the terms of a future court settlement that would conclude their battle over Kiryas Joel’s annexation of land and declare their mutual support for the formation of a town that would separate Kiryas Joel from the Town of Monroe. The new town would include additional land outside Kiryas Joel’s current borders, but less than originally proposed in a petition submitted to the Orange County Legislature last year.
A revised map of the proposed town and possibly the court settlement itself will be distributed to county lawmakers for a committee meeting on Wednesday.
For now, the two sides aren’t disclosing the contents of their agreement, which they negotiated in private with some county representatives and in discussions with attorneys. United Monroe leaders Emily Convers and Mike Egan said Friday that the additional land that would be joined with Kiryas Joel in the new town is “considerably less” than the 382 acres in the pending petition, but wouldn’t reveal the amount or discuss any other aspects of the multi-faceted settlement.
Egan, who led negotiations for United Monroe, said the separation of Kiryas Joel and Monroe would be healthy for both sides, enabling each to control its own destiny, and would allow the two communities to “reboot” their relationship.
“I think it’s a testament to everybody’s faith that we hung in through months of negotiations, and a lot of difficulty,” he said.
Convers said she appreciated Kiryas Joel’s willingness to stick with the discussions, and argued the resulting deal is fair and reasonable for both sides.
“I’m very eager and excited for the public to learn the details of this agreement,” she said.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin, in an emailed statement, called it “an historic new day” in the relationship between the two communities, praising what he hoped would be “a recipe for living side by side in peace and mutual respect and understanding.”
“We are grateful to all involved parties for the time and effort it took to reach this historic compromise,” Szegedin said. “Now comes the hard part of implementation, and most importantly listening to what the voters have to say; the final word will be theirs.”
The town formation would be subject to approval of both the county Legislature and Monroe voters. If approved by at least 14 of 21 county lawmakers, the proposal would be placed on the Nov. 7 election ballot in Monroe. The proposed town was called North Monroe in the petition but is likely to be given a different name.
The deal could end a pitched battle that began at the end of 2013, when a group of Monroe property owners petitioned for Kiryas Joel to annex 507 acres. The petition provoked fierce opposition, and spawned an alternative request for the village to annex 164 acres after the first petition stalled for a year.
The Monroe Town Board wound up approving the 164-acre petition and rejecting the 507-acre one in 2015. That prompted two court challenges, one by Preserve Hudson Valley - United Monroe’s nonprofit arm - and the other by a coalition of local governments that included Orange County and eight towns and villages. A judge dismissed the cases last year, and both sets of plaintiffs have appealed her ruling.
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170616/kiryas-joel-united-monroe-agree-on-new-town
After more than two months of negotiations that intensified in the last couple weeks, the two sides have finalized the terms of a future court settlement that would conclude their battle over Kiryas Joel’s annexation of land and declare their mutual support for the formation of a town that would separate Kiryas Joel from the Town of Monroe. The new town would include additional land outside Kiryas Joel’s current borders, but less than originally proposed in a petition submitted to the Orange County Legislature last year.
A revised map of the proposed town and possibly the court settlement itself will be distributed to county lawmakers for a committee meeting on Wednesday.
For now, the two sides aren’t disclosing the contents of their agreement, which they negotiated in private with some county representatives and in discussions with attorneys. United Monroe leaders Emily Convers and Mike Egan said Friday that the additional land that would be joined with Kiryas Joel in the new town is “considerably less” than the 382 acres in the pending petition, but wouldn’t reveal the amount or discuss any other aspects of the multi-faceted settlement.
Egan, who led negotiations for United Monroe, said the separation of Kiryas Joel and Monroe would be healthy for both sides, enabling each to control its own destiny, and would allow the two communities to “reboot” their relationship.
“I think it’s a testament to everybody’s faith that we hung in through months of negotiations, and a lot of difficulty,” he said.
Convers said she appreciated Kiryas Joel’s willingness to stick with the discussions, and argued the resulting deal is fair and reasonable for both sides.
“I’m very eager and excited for the public to learn the details of this agreement,” she said.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin, in an emailed statement, called it “an historic new day” in the relationship between the two communities, praising what he hoped would be “a recipe for living side by side in peace and mutual respect and understanding.”
“We are grateful to all involved parties for the time and effort it took to reach this historic compromise,” Szegedin said. “Now comes the hard part of implementation, and most importantly listening to what the voters have to say; the final word will be theirs.”
The town formation would be subject to approval of both the county Legislature and Monroe voters. If approved by at least 14 of 21 county lawmakers, the proposal would be placed on the Nov. 7 election ballot in Monroe. The proposed town was called North Monroe in the petition but is likely to be given a different name.
The deal could end a pitched battle that began at the end of 2013, when a group of Monroe property owners petitioned for Kiryas Joel to annex 507 acres. The petition provoked fierce opposition, and spawned an alternative request for the village to annex 164 acres after the first petition stalled for a year.
The Monroe Town Board wound up approving the 164-acre petition and rejecting the 507-acre one in 2015. That prompted two court challenges, one by Preserve Hudson Valley - United Monroe’s nonprofit arm - and the other by a coalition of local governments that included Orange County and eight towns and villages. A judge dismissed the cases last year, and both sets of plaintiffs have appealed her ruling.
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170616/kiryas-joel-united-monroe-agree-on-new-town
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