Woodbury, NY - Replaces Lawyer In Kiryas Joel Tussle

Woodbury, NY - Town officials are replacing the Albany lawyer David Engel, they brought in two years ago to prepare for a land battle with neighboring Kiryas Joel and navigate a tangle of land-use and legal issues.

A likely source of conflict was a master plan update that Engel helped draft. The new plan - technically known as a comprehensive plan - was zooming toward adoption until Kiryas Joel's lawyers and consultants sent sharply worded letters in December and February calling it discriminatory and demanding changes.
Officials have said for months that Engel was working on responses to those comments. But on Thursday, the board voted unanimously to seek a new lawyer to finish the comprehensive plan and "litigate future land issues," among other responsibilities.

Kiryas Joel and its landowners object to references in the comprehensive plan to the Hasidic community's high-density housing and warnings that such development would destroy rural character and pollute groundwater if allowed to spread westward into Woodbury.
In a Feb. 15 letter, one lawyer for the village said parts of the plan constituted a "thinly veiled attack on the lifestyles and culture of the Hasidic residents of (the) Village of Kiryas Joel and Woodbury with the goal of preventing the normal and necessary growth of the Village."
The town and its consultants must respond to those criticisms as part of an environmental review for the comprehensive plan.