GOSHEN – A lawsuit filed
in State Supreme Court by officials of the Village of Kiryas Joel against
the County of Orange and others seeking to block development of a portion
of the county-owned Camp LaGuardia as an industrial park, has been dismissed.
Justice Elaine Slobod ruled the Article 78 challenge to block the rezoning
of that portion of the county land in the Town of Chester from office
park to industrial “is not ripe for judicial review.”
“The impacts which the petitioners fear are wholly speculative at
this stage,” Slobod wrote in her decision dated February 3.
Kiryas Joel officials contend that the development of Camp LaGuardia as
an industrial park would have an impact on the wastewater treatment capacity
of the sewer district and would preclude “needed” residential
development in the area.
They argued that environmental review should begin at the earliest possible
stage of the redevelopment project and that the Chester local law in question
“should not have been adopted without environmental review of the
ultimate plan.”
The county and the other respondents moved to dismiss the suit contending
the petitioners did not have standing to bring the action; that the issued
they raised are not ripe for judicial determination; and the petitions
failed to join necessary parties such as other members of the sewer district.
The aside from the Village of Kiryas Joel, other petitioners include
Mayor Abraham Wieder, Village Trustees Moses Goldstein, Jacob Reisman,
Samuel Landau, Jacob Freund, and Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin.
The respondents included Orange County, its planning department, the county
legislature, Orange County Sewer District #1, towns of Blooming Grove
and Chester, Village of Chester and Town of Chester Planning Board.
