Plans to form Viznitz Hasidic village in Sullivan County halted by lawsuit. What's next?
Plans by the Viznitz Hasidic community to form a new village in Sullivan County have been halted by a lawsuit by opponents who hope to disqualify the village petition.
Two homeowners whose properties were included in the proposed village of Ateres filed the challenge on Oct. 6, shortly before the supervisors of the towns of Thompson and Fallsburg were due to schedule a referendum on the proposal. The town leaders had declared the petition valid a month earlier.
The pending court case, which seeks to invalidate 22 petition signatures, puts on hold any vote by residents of the nearly 1.5-square-mile area in the Catskills that would become New York's newest municipality.
The village petition filed in June would enable the Viznitz community to establish its own local government and laws. The proposed Ateres straddles two towns but is mostly in Thompson and consists of the small Viznitz enclave — with an estimated 834 adults and children living in it — and hundreds of acres of surrounding land.
The towns held two public hearings in August for speakers to pose objections to the petition on technical and legal grounds. After weighing that testimony and a flood of written comments, Thompson Supervisor Bill Rieber and Fallsburg Supervisor Kathy Rappaport In August voided 25 of the 99 signatures but upheld the petition.
Village plans: Viznitz Hasidim in Sullivan County seek to forge their own village with 929 acres
What does the lawsuit say?
The lawsuit by residents Steven Rivela and John Reeves alleges that additional faults bring the valid signature total to fewer than the legal minimum of 65. Their two claims: 13 signers weren't registered voters and might not be qualified to vote in Thompson or Fallsburg in the referendum; and nine other signatures didn't match the ones on record for those voters and may have been forged.
The case, filed by Monticello attorney Steven Mogel, is pending in state Supreme Court in Monticello before Justice James Farrell.
Petition approved: Hasidic village plans in Sullivan County cleared for vote. What happens next
What's the need for a new village?
An Ateres organizer told the USA Today Network in August that the main motivation for the village was to create a local government that would be more responsive to the Hasidic community's unique needs. Those priorities included more sidewalks and street lights for pedestrian safety.
The proposal met one of New York's few legal requirements for incorporating a village: that the area have at least 500 inhabitants. That population threshold would rise to 2,000 under either of two bills approved by the state Legislature this year and awaiting a decision by Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has until Dec. 31 to sign or veto them.
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: Sullivan County Hasidic village plans halted by lawsuit. What's next?
