Haverstraw OKs controversial Orthodox Jewish synagogue, settles lawsuit. What's next?

GARNERVILLE − First the Haverstraw Town Planning Board and then the Town Board voted 5-0 Monday to approve a settlement with an Orthodox Jewish congregation that paves the way for its synagogue and diverts litigation that officials said the town would likely lose and could cost taxpayers millions.

Some 140 of those taxpayers came to the special joint meeting, mostly to express disappointment and frustration.

"You're caving into a threat," said town resident Maddalena Harper, who lives near 62 Riverglen Drive, a single-family house that K'hal Bnei Torah of Mount Ivy plans to convert into a synagogue for local families.

That threat: RLUIPA, or the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

The dual board votes allow the town to enter into a settlement agreement to nix federal civil rights litigation filed by the congregation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. That lawsuit relies on RLUIPA and state laws designed to protect the free exercise of religion.

Meanwhile, a countersuit by neighbors of the planned synagogue continues, said attorney Elliott Louis Pell. It aims to force a review of RLUIPA.

The neighbors' federal challenge was filed Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District. The congregation has until later this month to respond.

'We would be laughed out of court'

The congregation filed its litigation in November 2022 after its synagogue plan had won key variances and environmental approvals over its two-plus years before town land-use boards but was ultimately denied final approval by a 3-2 vote in August by the Planning Board.

The congregation was seeking millions in damages from the town and the three Planning Board members who voted against the project. None spoke during the nearly three-hour meeting, beyond their roll-call vote to approve the settlement.

"In essence, we have a board say this wasn't a problem and then come back and say it was a problem without explanation," Kenneth Pitcoff of Morris Duffy Alonso Faley & Pitcoff, a law firm that specializes in insurance law, said at the meeting.

He said the case was "not defensible; 100 out of 100 attorneys would have said the same thing."

Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips said attorneys have told town officials that if they chose to defend themselves against the case, "we would be laughed out of court."

'Discriminatory animus'

The synagogue zoning request garnered national attention and much ire in August 2021 after a nearby resident made a series of antisemitic comments. He said that he would "of course" back up over any Orthodox Jewish children if he struck them with his vehicle.

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The congregation, in its federal court filing, asserted that the failure to grant the synagogue's application was religious discrimination and a "capitulation to the discriminatory animus clearly voiced by the 'generalized public opposition' to the project."

Several speakers and Phillips said during Monday's meeting that the comments were disgusting and didn't reflect Haverstraw.

Verbal scuffle

Brett Yagel, a former Pomona mayor, blasted the board for its choice to settle.

Pomona has been embroiled in a 15-year-plus standoff of sorts with the Rabbinical College of Tartikov, which owns about 130 acres in the village that straddle the Haverstraw-Ramapo border. Tartikov wants to build a rabbinical college campus that would have dorms for students and their families.

Yagel asserted he had "stood up" to RLUIPA, "and won by the way." The rabbinical college continues its quest to build in the village.

Yagel, a Republican, and Phillips, a Democrat, later engaged in a verbal scuffle after Phillips noted that Yagel "never changed the law."

Harper said neighbors would continue pursuing their own litigation against the synagogue proposal. "Join our fight," she urged Phillips and the Town Board.

Residents' suit

Pell, attorney for Riverglen residents John and Tina Coritsidis and Kareen McKenzie of Riverglen, said the town should join the case that he believes will force a review of RLUIPA.

"My suit is continuing and continuing until it's resolved one way or the other," Pell said.

At Monday's meeting, John Coritsidis said he had lived in his Riverglen home for 37 years. "It's going to change my whole life," he said of the synagogue.

Tina Coritsidis said they are concerned about noise, traffic and lighting after the synagogue is complete. "What rights do I have?" she said.

The settlement calls for the town to pay $235,000 of the congregation's legal fees and for a slight reduction in the synagogue's size. The stipulation agreement also states that no one admits any wrongdoing.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland. 

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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Approval of Orthodox synagogue plan ends RLUIPA case vs. Haverstraw