Wednesday, July 11, 2018
600 Hasidic homes proposed for S. Blooming Grove
The developers of the proposed 600-home Clovewood project at the former Lake Anne County Club site estimate the development could more than double the Village of South Blooming Grove's population once completed.
Keen Equities LLC, an investor group that bought the property in 2006 for $15 million, hopes to build 600 single-family houses for the Satmar Hasidic community on 708 acres off Clove Road and Route 208, not far from Kiryas Joel. The project's consultants calculate that if each four-bedroom house has an accessory apartment, Clovewood could add almost 3,900 people to a village that had an estimated 3,200 residents as of the middle of last year.
The developers submitted a 509-page draft environmental impact statement and related documents to the village in April, detailing the proposal's potential impact on traffic, property taxes and other factors (available online at clovewood.com). The Village Board and Planning Board, which are jointly overseeing the project's environmental review, have until July 31 to determine if the impact statement addressed the study issues they identified last year, based on their consultants' analysis of the draft.
The boards will schedule a public hearing on the submission once they have determined it is ready for public review.
The developers propose to supply water to the homes with on-site wells and build a sewage-treatment plant that would discharge treated wastewater into a tributary of the Satterly Creek. Consultants estimate the community would use an average of 270,000 gallons of water per day if every house has a two-bedroom accessory apartment - a scenario that village officials required them to analyze in order to show the project's maximum potential impact.
According to the impact statement, three-day pump tests performed last summer found that six wells on the property can meet average demand of 275,400 gallons per day.
Dennis Lynch, a South Nyack attorney representing the village, said Tuesday that verifying the adequacy of those wells will be a key issue in reviewing the Clovewood plans, given the longstanding groundwater limitations in South Blooming Grove. He said village officials must make sure there's enough water for current and future residents and to supply hydrants for firefighting.
"There's a substantial concern about water, and there's a substantial concern about testing data that will be looked at by the village," Lynch said.
The development would serve the constant quest for housing for the fast-growing Hasidic community - and a brisk market for suburban-style homes outside Kiryas Joel, which has become increasingly congested and expensive. Families and investors from Kiryas Joel and Brooklyn have been buying houses in South Blooming Grove in droves for the past few years.
The planners calculated that 600 four-bedroom houses for the Hasidic community could hold 3,173 residents, and that 600 accessory apartments would mean another 689 people. Their floor plans for two proposed housing styles each include a 750-square-foot, unfinished space with a separate entrance for a potential apartment, which is a common feature with Hasidic housing.
The developers have objected to a proposed zoning change in South Blooming Grove that would allow accessory apartments only on homes that have existed for 10 years, which would preclude building Clovewood homes with apartments. In letters to the Village Board in August and November, Keen Equities' attorney, Steven Barshov, argued the rule would discriminate against Hasidic families' housing needs and reduce the value of his clients' property.
"The proposed local law is discriminatory both in intent and effect," Barshov wrote. "It is illegal exclusionary zoning."
The board hasn't acted yet on proposed changes in the village's accessory apartment rules.
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