Nov 7, 2011
Kiryas Yoel Claims Discrimination, as The Pot Calls The Kettle Black
I don't get it. A town creates a series of zoning laws for certain types of home construction. A neighboring town sues the first town because they want to expand into that area and the zoning laws are not for the type of housing that they prefer. they call it discriminatory.
Sounds strange? It does to me. But that is what is happening in New York between Kiryas Yoel and neighboring town Woodbury.
Woodbury zoned an area for residential home construction, not allowing high density housing in that area. Kiryas Yoel is suing Woodbury calling it discriminatory as they wish to expand in that direction and prefer high density housing. The large residential plots are not appropriate for them and would lock them out of expanding in that direction. Kiryas Yoel wants the zoning laws rescinded and changed to allow the high density housing.
the Times Herald Record has the story:
That along with the fact that Kiryas Yoel has it's own discriminatory policies. I'd like to see a non-Jew, or even a non Hassidic jew try to live there, let alone to try to join the local council. I'd even like to see if they would allow women to have any say in anything going on there. Kiryas Yoel is famous for their discrimination against women.
Is this the pot calling the kettle black?
Does Woodbury have to accommodate the desires and future expansion plans of Kiryas Yoel?
Sounds strange? It does to me. But that is what is happening in New York between Kiryas Yoel and neighboring town Woodbury.
Woodbury zoned an area for residential home construction, not allowing high density housing in that area. Kiryas Yoel is suing Woodbury calling it discriminatory as they wish to expand in that direction and prefer high density housing. The large residential plots are not appropriate for them and would lock them out of expanding in that direction. Kiryas Yoel wants the zoning laws rescinded and changed to allow the high density housing.
the Times Herald Record has the story:
The Village of Kiryas Joel has sued the neighboring Town of Woodbury to dismantle its zoning, accusing it of discriminating against Hasidic Jews by not allowing dense housing in an area where the Hasidic community hopes to expand.I am not quite sure how such a claim is valid as being discriminatory. Can't a city or township decide how it wants to zone housing within its area? They didnt disqualify any specific person or type of person from buying there, so why should Kiryas Yoel have any say in the matter?
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate a comprehensive plan and two zoning laws that Woodbury trustees adopted in June after seven years of planning and demands by Kiryas Joel that high-density housing be permitted.
Also targeted is a 2010 law regulating religious buildings in Woodbury. The case is filed in state Supreme Court in Goshen.
Kiryas Joel's lawyers argue that zoning for large residential lots prevents Hasidic Jews from “living and freely practicing their religion in Woodbury” and thereby “places an unreasonable burden on Kiryas Joel's housing stock, infrastructure, community services and community character.”
Joining the village and its officials in the lawsuit are five prongs of Vaad Hakiryah, the development arm of Kiryas
Joel's main religious congregation. The organization, which owns 175 acres of undeveloped land in Woodbury, claims it has been prevented from building multifamily housing, synagogues and other typical features of a Hasidic community.
The plaintiff's lawyers suggest that by blocking Kiryas Joel-style growth, Woodbury's zoning has hampered the lifestyle of Hasidic families who have settled outside Kiryas Joel in recent years.
David and Rose Ungar, who bought a Woodbury home for $485,000 in 2006, complain in court papers that they're “prohibited from living in a compact and walkable community in close proximity to the religious and cultural services provided in Kiryas Joel.”
Also named as a plaintiff is Kiryas Joel Public Safety Director Moses Witriol, who has lived in Woodbury since 2006 and lodged the same complaint as the Ungars.
Housing density a key issue
The underlying issue is
Kiryas Joel's steady population growth and quest to expand.
The village now has about 22,000 residents, and most of the available land in its 1.1 square miles has been developed. In addition to Vaad Hakiryah, various Hasidic investors own hundreds of acres of land around Kiryas Joel, awaiting development.
Vaad Hakiryah's purchase of the 140-acre ACE Farm in 2004 set off jitters in neighboring communities about Kiryas Joel expanding. Not long afterward, new villages formed in Woodbury and Blooming Grove as a way to preserve their zoning.
In the new lawsuit, Kiryas Joel's attorneys argue that Orange County planners supported the notion of denser housing in Woodbury by labeling the disputed territory a “priority growth area.”
They also point out that a three-county study identified the need for hundreds of affordable housing units in Woodbury.
The court papers claim that Woodbury rejected the idea of allowing high-density development by saying it would cause “significant environmental impacts,” but gave no evidence to support that conclusion.
Woodbury's attorneys declined to respond to the case on Friday.
That along with the fact that Kiryas Yoel has it's own discriminatory policies. I'd like to see a non-Jew, or even a non Hassidic jew try to live there, let alone to try to join the local council. I'd even like to see if they would allow women to have any say in anything going on there. Kiryas Yoel is famous for their discrimination against women.
Is this the pot calling the kettle black?
Does Woodbury have to accommodate the desires and future expansion plans of Kiryas Yoel?
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Ironically, this strengthens the case of those who claim that RBS C is being designed specifically for Chareidim. It's exactly the type of building/zoning in Kiryas Joel, which caters to ultra-orthodox families and lifestyle, that makes such development undesirable for others.
ReplyDeleteanother point, I am not quite sure why this is Kiryas Yoel's business.
ReplyDeleteI can understand if an individual (or group of people) from Kiryas Yoel tried to buy in Woodbury and felt discriminated against that they could sue. I am not sure how this is discrimination, even in the loosest sense, against neighoring Kiryas Yoel. If they want to build in Woodbury, that will be Woodbury not Kiryas Yoel. What does Kiryas Yoel have to do with it?
It is de facto discrimination, since it precludes people who have a certain lifestyle from living there. It's not discriminatory in the way the Jim Crow laws were, since the discrimination isn't specifically codified. But it is considered discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that the State Supreme Court is located in Goshen. They're trying to build an ideal society in galut, and the road goes through a city whose namesake was the first place which Bnei Yisrael spent in galut.
yoni - one could also say that setting up a community where the buses are not gender-segregated, as Kiryas Yoel (and others) prefers, is discrimination. KY people cant live there because th societal norms exclude them.
ReplyDeleteThey want a certain type of housing in Woodbury, and anybody who wants to buy a house can. Even people from Kiryas Yoel.
if someone from KY tried to buy a house and they said no, that would be discrimination.
Is it discrimination for Beverly Hills to build million dollar homes because poor people cannot afford them?
I think as a legal matter, it might depend on how well the town has documented the environmental impacts. While towns can generally zone as the like, they can't, under US law, do so in a way that is specifically to keep a particular ethnic group out. Given that they seemed to have changed the zoning after the Kiryas Joel people bought the tract, the question for the court will be whether the environmental concerns are real or a pretext to change the zoning to keep the Hassidim out.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that in New York state, a village can annex land from another community once its population gets high enough, and then further rezone however they like. This "mass-develop and then take" strategy has been their strategy for years now-and they are angry Woodbury has enacted its own local zoning in a non-discriminatory, careful fashion. Members of the Hasidic community are perfectly free to move here (they have already, to my knowledge for years now). Hundreds more regularly shop within Woodbury using KJ's public transportation systems one would imagine could be easily adapted to creatively handle other cultural and religious needs too.
ReplyDeleteWoodbury worked fantastically hard on its environmental management and planning, to avoid discrimination and reflect the needs of our Master Plan. (Indeed, previous open minded talks with a dissident group within KJ attempting to annex our land by force, (which is also now suing KJ's own government in Federal Courts for its corruption and religious discrimination internally), ended with them peacefully dropping attempts to try and annex Woodbury land- dialog, not discrimination has been the spirit of Woodbury's relations).
KJ's government, meanwhile was also successfully sued by the County to block attempts to build a pipeline to NYC reservoirs with no real plan for sustainable growth or its impacts on its neighbors. But the County government eventually bowed to politics (long story) and quit fighting their further appeals, despite the well documented environmental mess that is KJ's so called plan for its impact on its neighbors.
KJ also built an illegal water tower on Woodbury land a few years back, without a permit, in an attempt to get a foothold. Unfortunately they were not caught in time, but never got a permit and blatantly ignored our laws.
These games have gone on for some time, in many cases in neighboring communities. It is unfair to repeatedly disregard the laws and environmental regulations supposedly protecting all citizens (equally), and then cry "discrimination" when some of them actually stand up for their rights to democratically govern their sovereign territory with wise environmental and community planning (the zoning, in this case balances clustered zoning with widespread green space, a system increasingly adopted across New York and other parts of the country to avoid both super-high density AND ugly suburban sprawl).
The irony is that this "discrimination" suit is happening concurrent with the above noted attempt from within KJ to dissolve the government itself as an illegal theocracy- they have been allegedly persecuting their own internal opposition with the force of state and religious leadership for years now. Local activists from Woodbury have actually worked with these KJ residents as invited voting observers to ensure fairer elections, and many people in Woodbury are sympathetic to their concerns for democracy, the rule of law and self-governance. They are concerns close to our hearts as fellow Americans as well.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110613/NEWS/110619922
-Longtime Woodbury voter/citizen
(It should be noted the Kyrias Joel Opposition movement is also made up of Hasidic Jews- albeit a splinter group who have their own place of worship. An example of the intimidation which led to their current court battles with their leadership is attempts by the village government to bulldoze the parking lot of their house of worship a year or so back.
ReplyDeleteI strongly suspect the government is hoping to distract from their own legal troubles by attacking Woodbury. It would be highly ironic if the Federal Courts actually uphold the internal calls to dissolve them as a religiously discriminatory theocracy while they accuse Woodbury of religious discrimination).