FORESTBURGH- The office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has submitted a “Statement of Interest” to federal court in a case between a developer, Lost Lake Holdings LLC, and the Town of Forestburgh.
This is the latest step in a dispute that has been unfolding for years in a dispute over a proposed housing development in the town.
According to the allegations made in the complaint, the property at issue is a site in Forestburgh that measures about 3.3 square miles. Back in 2008, a developer purchased the site and sought the town board’s approval to rezone the site as a planned development district. In 2011, the town board approved the rezoning and authorized a plan consisting of 2,627 residential units. The construction of these units was set to take place in seven phases.
In the two years that followed, the town board granted all of the necessary approvals for the first phase of construction to begin. The original developer struggled and ultimately was unable to develop the property, and in July 2020, Lost Lake Holdings LLC purchased the property.
According to the developer, shortly after town officials realized that the new owners were Hasidic, they engaged in “a series of violations . . . in order to prevent Plaintiffs from ever developing Lost Lake and selling homes to Hasidic Orthodox Jewish buyers.”
The developer maintains these violations include increasing the per-lot fees associated with parks, increasing tax assessments, and imposing numerous other costly delays, including the withholding of building permits.
According to the US Attorney’s letter, if taken as true, the plaintiff’s claims give them standing under the federal Fair Housing Act. The letter reads, in part, “Plaintiffs have also suffered significant financial damages, loss of all economically productive use of the Project Site, lost profits and asset value, all as a result of the Defendants’ actions and their application to the Plaintiffs, including Defendants’ discriminatory conduct.”
The case is pending in federal court in White Plains in front of Judge Vincent Briccetti.
