Kearsing & Edwards American Legion Post 1600 is the lead petitioner-plaintiff fighting back against the Town Board approvals of the Millers Pond rezoning and PUD approval. On February 25, 2025 the Judge Cornell issued an adverse decision in our case but the Court missed the mark regarding our claims. The errors are obvious even to us as lay persons so Post 1600 plans to appeal the decision. We seek public donation to support this effort.
The Town Board’s claim that they did the environmental review of the rezoning and PUD Local Law during the comprehensive plan update process is simply untrue. They did environmental review to consider a comprehensive plan recommendation to consider a future rezoning action on the site but nothing detailed and specific to the rezoning or the plan. It was impossible for them to have considered the application received in January 2023 at any time in 2019-2022 because the project and the new proposed zoning didn’t even exist at the time. To actually consider a rezoning action the Town is required by its own code to send notices of public hearings to the neighbors and allow us to participate in the environmental review processes.
Not only did the Town fail to notice the neighbors they failed to notice the various permitting agencies. They took the position from 2019-2022 that they were considering just the comprehensive plan and no rezoning and then later changed their position. The Town Board could have easily organized all the submissions into a project specific environmental impact statement document and given the neighbors the opportunity to point out avoidable environmental impacts – especially the visual impacts and the safety of the new proposed entrances but they completed their review processes before they even claim to have noticed the neighbors. Prior to the Planning Board notice for the tree cutting we have not met a single neighbor who ever received notice and the Town failed to require the proof of mailing that Town Code requires to ensure that mistakes don’t happen as they obviously did here.
The way in which the Town did generic environmental impact statement for Northeast Ramapo and did not identify the rezoning actions is very important because of the current Town plans to repeat the errors again but now town wide. If they want to consider actual rezoning and actual projects as part of the comprehensive plan environmental review process they need to tell people that this is what they are doing. They need to notify federal, state and county agencies that they expect these involved agencies to rely on their reviews for future projects during the process. Our appeal is relevant to all Town of Ramapo residents who may be similarly impacted if the Town repeats their mistakes again in the new comprehensive plan effort.
There were and there remain solutions to be found but the Town Board and now the Planning Board are failing the residents of Ramapo. They are simply rubber stamping this project at every step and have yet to require any changes. It’s one of the largest and most complex development projects of its kind ever in Rockland County located in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of all of Rockland County. This project will have permanent impact on the County of Rockland Mounty Ivy parkland hiking trail that serves all residents of Rockland County and is adjacent to Post 1600 and it will be forever marred if the Town boards don’t require modifications to protect the existing landowners in this area of Ramapo.
The developer is well spoken when delivering his untruths. The developer promised to the Town Board that it would meet with the legion. He invited us and other neighbors to a presentation but there was discussion of solutions. He again promised to contact us to work out solutions but never called. I called him on behalf of the legion but he didn’t return my calls. He made false representations to the Town Board and then later to the Planning Board regarding the tree cutting regarding what the ultimate plans for the site would be to finagle them into a premature approval.
He sought, and received, permission to cut down trees two seasons earlier than normal for no good reasons the Town made it clear that the approvals weren’t going to be finalized until the end of 2025. He claimed the trees needed to be cut by March 31st but they could have been just as easily cut after November 1st without project impacts. He promised he would only cut trees Monday-Friday from 8-4 and the Planning Board approvals documented this commitment but he started his cutting on Friday Jan 28th and continued to cut down trees all weekend long to make sure that there was no recourse by Monday. He told the Town and Planning Boards that it would take weeks to cut down trees but it took mere days. Despite a very large number of orthodox residents living around the site being traumatized on the sabbath by the tree cutting, they couldn’t even call the police to complain due to Sabbath observances.
The flowering apple trees seen to the right of the Pomona entrance to the site on the sabbath were chopped down on Saturday March 1st to deny the neighbors flowers this spring for absolutely no good reason at all other than apparent retribution. It is unfortunate to have to deal with such vindictiveness and be forced to continue legal efforts when there are fair solutions to be found through cooperation.
Everything about this project has been about lack of notice, lack of environmental review, and false promises. The legion plans to appeal the decision and we have a GoFundMe Save Our Site Campaign underway to collect public donations. We have been good neighbors for over 70 years offering a community center serving a litany of community organizations, who in turn raise money for public causes. Please help the legion continue in our community support.
