Ramapo Stops Yeshiva Construction

Ramapo - Concerns about the potential presence of asbestos have led the town to halt work at the site for Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim with 60 apartments for adult students.
The dozen 900-square-feet homes on the site have already been demolished. Piles of debris on the 4.7-acre site cannot be moved and other work there cannot resume until the town gets answers to the asbestos question.

Dennis Lynch, a Nyack attorney representing the Yeshiva, said the issue of asbestos, had been addressed a decade ago when the group bought the place.

At that time, the site, which is on the south side of Grandview Avenue, was within the village of New Hempstead. The settlement of a federal discrimination lawsuit against the village, brought over the yeshiva plan, resulted in the site being annexed to the unincorporated town.

A permit for the $20,000 demolition of the buildings was issued by Ramapo on Jan. 30. The project's building permit, issued on Dec. 15, has since been updated with a higher construction cost. Originally estimated by the developers at $6 million, for which a $54,046 permit fee was paid, the cost was increased by the Building Department to $8,399,755 based on the number of square feet. The increase boosted the permit fee to $75,617, according to Building Department records.