Hasidic village plans in Sullivan County cleared for vote. What happens next
The Viznitz Hasidic community's plans to incorporate an almost 1.5-square-mile village in the Catskills has cleared its first hurdle and may be headed to a referendum.
The supervisors of two Sullivan County towns where the proposed village of Ateres is located announced Friday that the petition submitted in June met all legal requirements. They had held two hearings in August and weighed signature objections and other potential flaws that could have invalidated the petition.
Their review deemed it valid. In a joint press release, Thompson Supervisor Bill Rieber and Fallsburg Supervisor Kathy Rappaport said opponents raised "many well-articulated objections" that they couldn't consider under the state's archaic law for creating villages. "No qualitative or quantitative analysis is even allowed," they lamented.
"Therefore, many of these objections, while full of merit, are not actual reasons for challenge based on the antiquated Village Law," the supervisors wrote.
Anyone opposed to the plans now has 30 days to challenge the petition in court. If no one sues, Rieber and Rappaport would then schedule a referendum for the roughly 320 adults living in the proposed village. That vote would likely usher into existence New York's newest municipality.
Why do they want a village?
Ateres is a jigsaw puzzle of properties taking up 929 acres, mostly in Thompson. Its core is a small enclave of about 140 Vitnitz families in the Kiamesha Lake area, a year-round settlement that began two decades ago. Surrounding that are hundreds of acres of undeveloped land.
If approved, the new village would have its own leaders and laws, including new zoning to regulate future development.
Zev Tarkletaub, one of the organizers, told the USA Today Network last month that residents sought that step mainly to enhance services that are important to the Hasidic community, such as sidewalks and streetlights for pedestrian safety. Having their own government would ensure those priorities are met, he argued.
Ateres proposal: Viznitz Hasidim in Sullivan County seek to forge their own village with 929 acres
He dismissed concerns that a new village with zoning control would foster excessive development, saying that residents moved to Sullivan for its rural character and don't want to live amidst dense housing.
Tarkletaub couldn't be reached immediately on Friday for comment on the petition approval.
Opponents who spoke at the first hearing objected to adding a new layer of government and found fault with the petition itself, arguing enough of its 99 signatures were flawed to render it invalid.
Could pending NY legislation derail the plans?
The population of 834 adults and children living in the Ateres area meets one of the state's few requirements for forming a village: that it have at least 500 inhabitants.
Two bills that state lawmakers passed in June would update and expand village incorporation rules, including raising the population threshold to 2,000. If signed into law, either proposal could pose a new obstacle for Ateres and another Hasidic village proposed in neighboring Orange County. The village of Seven Springs proposal in the town of Monroe surfaced in 2018 and has been tied up in litigation.
Another proposal: Appeals court greenlights next steps to create new Hasidic village in Monroe
Both village incorporation bills were approved in Albany three months ago and are awaiting decisions by Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign or veto them. She has until the end of the year to do so.
In their joint statement, Rieber and Rappaport said the century-old state law for village formations gives no consideration to their future environmental impact, such as water and sewer needs, or other factors like road improvement costs or hiring new municipal employees. It also ignores the fact that New York has been seeking to shed — not add — layers of government by encouraging villages to dissolve or merge.
"Fortunately, the Assembly and Senate agree, having both approved an updated bill which awaits Gov.Hochul’s signature," they wrote. "We are governed by the current law, absent the Governor’s signature."
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Viznitz Hasidic village plan in Sullivan County cleared for vote
