Preserve Ramapo

www.preserve-ramapo.com

Public Hearing–Critical Ramapo Zone Change for Pascack Ridge

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Pascack Ridge Location

There will be a Public Hearing for the zone change for Pascack Ridge, from R-15 to MR-12, Wednesday, August 15th, 7:00pm at Ramapo Town Hall.

Here are background statements from the CUPON community, and Micheal Miller, followed by the ROSA explanation and documents that explain the critical nature of the changes proposed by the Ramapo Supervisor and Board:

This is the most important assault on Hillcrest and surrounding communities to date. While most communities in the United States are willingly or being forced to integrate housing and most other  basic human rights, our elected officials in Ramapo are aiding and abetting segregated housing, here in the middle of Hillcrest, the most diverse community in Rockland county There is nothing wrong with responsible building to enhance and renew a community. That is NOT what this is. This development, and what’s to follow, will displace practically every person of color, and those with different beliefs, in this portion of the unincorporated Town of Ramapo. Regardless of your financial, health, or social status you will not be able to rent, buy or live in these proposed housing units that the town is ready to enable development. [Read more…]

Ramapo shelves first-time homebuyer tax exemption proposal

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Michael Specht Ramapo Supervisor

Ramapo Supervisor Michael Specht Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News

“The Town of Ramapo has pulled a controversial proposal to give tax breaks to first-time buyers of newly constructed homes.

The plan would have lowered town taxes over five years, by 50 percent the first year down to 10 percent in the last, for those who bought a newly built home and had not owned a home before. [Read more…]

Chestnut Ridge: Lawsuit ends, synagogue vs. garage debate remains

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Hilda Kogut of Chestnut Ridge CUPON Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News

“Neighbors are infuriated by the dismissal of a lawsuit over a three-car garage they claim is a being used as a synagogue.

A lawsuit filed by the religious educational center has been dropped with the village’s support that challenged a Zoning Board Appeals ruling voiding the building inspector’s original certificate of occupancy for the structure on Spring Hill Terrace. [Read more…]

Tartikov seeks $5.2M in legal fee reimbursement from Pomona

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“The Congregation Rabbinical College of Tartikov is seeking $5.2 million in reimbursement for its legal fees, based on a federal judge’s ruling that the village’s zoning discriminated against it.

The village, which has a 2018 budget of $2.8 million, already has spent more than $5 million since 2007 trying to prevent the congregation from building a dormitory-style school in a wooded area along the Route 202-306 corridor. [Read more…]

CUPON Movement Is Growing

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CUPON logo1”All politics is local.”  Rep. Tip O’Neill

The same spirit that inspired more than a dozen villages to break from the Town of Ramapo has now created the formation of seven CUPON organizations. The initials stand for Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods, and the unifying motivation is to prevent the uncontrolled development and disregard for the law ongoing in the Town of Ramapo.

To find and get in touch with the CUPON in your neighborhood, here are the websites to visit: [Read more…]

Pressure mounts for Rockland Boulders to fill seats at stadium as Ramapo loses money

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Boulders Stadium Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News

“No one, it seemed, wanted the Rockland Boulders.

Certainly not the people of Ramapo who, by a ratio of three to one, voted down a 2010 resolution that would have guaranteed $16.5 million in long-term bonds to build the 5,300-seat stadium where the Boulders play today.

That didn’t deter former Ramapo town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence. Federal prosecutors say St. Lawrence, while in office, masterminded a scheme to funnel public money to the stadium project, despite his assurances that the stadium would be built with private funds. [Read more…]

A Law Tailored for Orthodox Jewish Schools Is Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Says

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Yaffed logoBy Zoe Greenberg in The New York Times July 23, 2018

“A lawsuit filed Monday argues that New York is illegally looking the other way when it comes to ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, loosening restrictions that will ultimately leave students without a basic knowledge of English, math and science.

The lawsuit, filed slightly more than a month before the first day of school, is the latest action in a years-long debate over how to regulate yeshivas, the private religious schools that focus primarily on studying Jewish texts. [Read more…]

Chestnut Ridge Zoning Hearing Tuesday

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Special Chestnut Ridge Board Meeting, Tuesday July 24 at 7:30 PM Spring Valley High School, 361 NY-Rt 59 Spring Valley.

This meeting is the continuation of the June special hearing on proposed large scale zoning changes.

We want to thank everyone who attended last month, we had a tremendous turnout at the June meeting, almost 1000 people showed up to express our concerns about this poorly conceived zoning law. [Read more…]

Ramapo to Sell the Quarry and 8 Acres in Chestnut Ridge

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Ramapo Sign For Sale by OwnerLast week, The Journal News reported that the Town of Ramapo has begun the process to sell two large tracts of land: the quarry property in Suffern and eight acres on Pinebrook Road in Chestnut Ridge. These same properties were described as “protected” by the currently imprisoned Christopher St. Lawrence and recently fired chief attorney, Michael Klein. [Read more…]