Woodbury, NY - High-Density Housing Votes Rejected

Woodbury, NY - The controversial high-density housing proposal the Woodbury Town Board pushed through last year, ostensibly to block an even higher-density expansion by neighboring Kiryas Joel, could collapse after a court ruling.

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Elaine Slobod threw out a series of Nov. 3 votes by the board that would allow developers to build 451 homes near Monroe-Woodbury High School, in response to a lawsuit brought by project neighbors.

A request with an ultimatum by Pearl River-based builder Bill Brodsky, who said he might sell the property to developers from Kiryas Joel if he couldn't get the higher density on the 398-acre patch of woods and fields off Dunderberg Road, stirred fears that land around the Hasidic community of 18,000 would one day give way to the tightly packed condominiums typical within its 1.1 square miles. So Woodbury leaders wound up supporting a high-density housing while most local town halls were doing everything they could to put the brakes on development.
But in their rush to push the plan through with a 4-1 vote five days before Election Day, the Town Board failed to send the proper documents to the county planning department, which opposed the plan, Slobod said.
"What the court said is, 'If you're going to do this, do it properly,'" said Attorney Jim Bacon of New Paltz, who represented the plan's opponents. Slobod ordered a do-over: The town must file the proper paperwork and take another vote to override the county's denial.
But Supervisor Burke said he wouldn't support spending taxpayer money to appeal Slobod's ruling in court. "I've been upfront and made no bones about it," Burke said.