CITIZENS UNITED TO PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
Our Mission
C.U.P.O.N. of Chestnut Ridge is an inclusive group of concerned residents allied in our shared commitment to keep our community safe and preserve the character of our neighborhood by stopping overdevelopment and illegal building activity in the Village of Chestnut Ridge.
Key Objectives:
1) Hold Chestnut Ridge elected officials and Village Administrators accountable for the consistent enforcement of all building codes, zoning laws and permit approval processes
2) Inform and educate Village Residents about issues that affect our neighborhood.
3) Keep Residents engaged and mobilized for positive change and action when decisions are made
4) Ensure all Residents have a seat at the table and that our voices are heard before the Village.
LEGAL UPDATE
CUPON OF CHESTNUT RIDGE NEWS FLASH
On March 15, 2023, three judges of the New York State Appellate Court ruled unanimously in CUPON’s favor denying the Village’s attempt to dismiss CUPON’s New York State Article 78 on the Village’s House of Worship Local Law of 2019.
Four years ago, CUPON and three tax paying property owners filed an Article 78 against the Village’s new zoning rules for religious use which superseded the prior rules in place since the Village’s formation in 1986. As we all know, the wheels of the legal system turn very slowly and when coupled with the Covid pandemic the wheels seemed to grind to a halt. But in fact, the legal proceedings were inching forward and were focused on the Village’s strategy of denial and delay.
This strategy attempted to strip Village resident’s right to legally challenge the Board of Trustees decisions by claiming that CUPON and the resident plaintiffs have no standing. The Village claimed that CUPON and taxpaying property owners and residents have no right to request judicial review of the Village’s legislative actions. This claim that legislators should not be subject to judicial review is repugnant to all residents who believe in our government by the people through the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Further, it ignores the fact that legislative decisions are required to follow legal procedures and standards established by New York State.
But CUPON knows that the Village must comply with law and the Article 78 states that the Village i) failed to identify issues required by NYS Environmental Quality Review Act, ii) improperly segmented environment issues by deferring them to individual use permits rather than studying the cumulative long term impacts, iii) failed to take the hard look at environmental concerns and did not explain why they did so and iv) failed to refer the new zoning to the Rockland County Planning Agency and other sundry procedural shortcuts.
Finally, after four years of attempting to avoid facing the above substantive issues and instead denying the Village residents of their right to challenge legislative decisions, CUPON is now a big step closer to judicial review of the substantive issues. The Village may attempt to further appeal the Appellate Court’s decisions which has little chance of success. Kindly recognize that this would simply be another delay tactic and repugnant denial of Village residents legitimate right to challenge Village legislative actions.
Please stay tuned and involved on these matters that involve All Residents. The Village Board of Trustees is required to comply with law and act to protect the interest of All Residents. The divisive attitude and actions of the Village’s legislative and executive decisions will continue to be challenged by any and All Village residents and CUPON.
Messages from our chair person
Message to all Chestnut Ridge Residents March 20
Good evening CUPON of Chestnut Ridge residents and supporters.
I have some good news regarding our Article 78 which was filed in NYS Supreme Court just after the Village Government passed the House of Worship law in 2019.!
If you recall the basis of our argument was not to challenge anything related to RLUIPA- rather we challenged the Village's failure to consider the environmental impact of the law (SEQRA). While we lost the first round in NYS Supreme Court ,the Appellate Court in Brooklyn found in our favor.
We have posted both the court's decision and a synthesized version for those who don't want to review the legal opinion.
The Village has some work ahead of it- what to do now- rewrite the law, hold new hearings, who knows but we have definitely created a barrier for the establishment of Houses of Worship in a willy nilly fashion as previously supported by the Village. We are actually trying to determine exactly how many HOWs were approved and began construction during the law's existence? No exact figure yet.
Will this stop the illegal activities - probably not as our code enforcement is now woefully inadequate based on what the Village wants but we have the leverage going forward.
This decision will most assuredly be used by other CUPON groups including the Haverstraw group now engaged in a Federal action.
The wheels of justice move slowly as we have seen. Our Federal matter , where we were said to have no standing by the US District Court in White Plains,NY will be argued in the Federal Appellate Court in May, 2023- so stand by- it might just get kicked back to the US District Court in White Plains. Let's see!!!
Meanwhile I encourage all to keep an eye on the illegal construction projects and report them. AND go to meetings and continue to challenge our Boards and government.
I will reach out to the Ambulance Corp and see if we can use their building for a long overdue meeting. In the meanwhile, please continue to support CUPON of CR.--PO Box 394, Nanuet, or through our PayPal account
Thanks, and be well, Hilda
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Message February 4
Hello CUPON of Chestnut Ridge members:
I have posted the 2 most recent filings submitted to the Appellate Court regarding the Federal law suit we filed in the Southern District of New York in White Plains within a fes short weeks after the Village passed the House of Worship Law in 2018. As you may recall the Court ruled that CUPON of CR had no standing to file our suit/complaint.
CUPON of CR believes that we certainly do have Standing and so we filed an appeal in December before the Appellate Court in December. This Filing has already been posted on the website.
Today I am also providing both the Village's response to our filing and CUPON of CR's response to the Village filing.
If you read the Village's filing, which costs the taxpayers a pretty penny you might note that the preparers seem to subscribe to the Toss Against the Wall Theory- throw enough against the legal wall and something might stick- But the don't stick to the issue at hand.
We have no idea when the Court will rule so we are in a holding pattern.
Again I remind all who read this that we welcome any donations to our fund. They can be posted on Paypal at www.cuponchestnutridge.org sent via check to Cupon of CR, PO Box 394, Nanuet,NY 10954.
And, again, if see work done illegally- no permit or no license on the vehicle immediately call the Rockland County Consumer Protection office at 845-364-2901.
Best Wishes, Hilda Kogut/ Chair of Cupon of Chestnut Ridge
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Message January 17 22
Hello CUPON of Chestnut Ridge members and supporters:
First I want to take a moment a Happy and Healthy and Peaceful 2023. 2022 was a tough year for all an I am hoping that we get the issue with COVID and other challenging health matters under control to some degree.
I apologize for taking so long to get this message to you but over the XMAS break I had the flu!!
But I am back in the box now.
I have had two important items posted for all from CUPON of Chestnut Ridge to bring you up to date on the 2 law suits we filed way back when the House of Worship proposal became law in Chestnut Ridge in March, 2018.
As you may recall ,with the support of so many here in Chestnut Ridge, our legal representatives filed an Article 78 which attacked the House of Worship Law because the issue of the Environmental Impact /SEQRA was not considered when the law which radically changed the requirements for the construction of a House of Worship, was enacted by our Village Board in February, 2018. This matter languished in NYS Supreme Court for a good long time with no satisfactory resolution by the Court. It was subsequently referred to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn for the panel to hear arguments supporting the law and against the law. I have provided a summary of our attorney's argument before the Appellate Division. Steve Mogel was the sole presenter on that date as you can see. There is no real way to determine when the Court will render its decision but you can be certain we will continue to monitor this matter.
The Second legal action CUPON of Chestnut Ridge filed after the HOW was passed was in US District Court in the Southern District of New York. This matter was assigned to the White Plains Site of the SDNY. This matter, based on the Establishment Clause among other aspects of Federal Law, was finally decided after many filings by the Village of Chestnut Ridge and the other organizations who vigorously supported the community who most benefitted from the HOW law to file such an action. The Court's finding was that CUPON of CHESTNUT RIDGE and the 3 signers( I am one) had NO Standing to file the action. BAH HUMBUG!! we said. The challenge to this decision was filed in mid December before the Second Circuit of the US Court of Appeals. I have provided this filing for you all to review. Again, no idea when a determination will be rendered but clearly we do have Standing! This matter will be referred back to the SDNY if found in our favor!
Additionally, we have filed another Article 78 regarding the Village's adoption of a Comprehensive Plan ( remember way back when the Mayor said wee would NEVER have a Comp Plan because it cost too much money to develop!!!) which again fails to really consider Environmental issues-/SEQRA..
I want to remind all that if you see illegal construction, illegal contractors you should call the Rockland County Department of Consumer Protection at 845-364-3901.
And, of course, I hope you will continue to support CUPON of CR by going to our PAYPAL site or sending donations to our Cupon of Chestnut Ridge, PO Box 394, Nanuet,NY 10954.
My goal is to have a CUPON meeting in Feb or March at the Ambulance Corp building. I will say that if such a meeting is held, all who attend should be masked!
Thanks, Hilda Kogut/ Chair of Cupon of Chestnut Ridge
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Message December 12, 222
I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with a website to use to follow the ORAL arguments that will be presented before the Appellate Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, December 13th in defense of our Article 78 which was filed in April 2019 after the HOW law was passed by the Village Board.
Just letting you know that anyone who does not want to shlep to 45 Monroe Place in Brooklyn to hear the arguments in person can go to the nycourts.gov website and watch oral arguments live. You just need to right-click the following and click on “Oral Argument Live – Brooklyn”: Appellate Division - Second Judicial Department (nycourts.gov)
Oral arguments are expected between 12 and 1 PM approximately.
Keep your fingers crossed and most importantly, thank you for continuing to support CUPON of CR in our efforts.
Hilda Kogut/ CUPON CR Chair
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Hello CUPONers.
By now you are all aware of the fact the the US District Court/Southern District of New York in White Plains ,NY dismissed our Federal Complaint as the Judge found that CUPON and those named in the complaint had no standing to file such an action. We are all scratching our collective heads about this decision!
We have carefully considered the matter and have filed a Notice of Appeal which will be submitted to the 2nd Circuit for its consideration. The same team that drafted the original complaint will be drafting the Appeal!!
Should the Appeal be accepted and found to have merit the matter will be returned the District Court in White Plains for the Judge's consideration! This matter will not be resolved overnight but we are determined as we believe our issues have merit!
ADDITIONALLY, the Article 78 will soon be heard in the Appellate Court in Brooklyn where our attorney, Steve Mogel will argue about the issue of the Village's failure to consider issues of the environment when the law was passed 4 + years ago.
It is interesting that the law was passed over 4 years ago and still we have not seen a significant amount of permit requests for building Houses of Worship!
I am going to try to secure the Ambulance Building for meeting of CUPON in the near future!
Until that meeting, I remind all that we welcome donations either on PAYPAL on our website www.cuponchetsnutridge.org or via our mail - Cupon of Chestnut Ridge, PO Box 394, Nanuet,NY 10954.
Thanks everyone, Hilda
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general information
Upcoming Meetings
DUE TO COVID19 NEXT CUPON MEETING
TBD
William P. Faist Volunteer Ambulance,
Red Schoolhouse Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY
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Help Our Cause
We urgently ask for your monetary contribution to continue our mission. Due to rising expenses together with several legal challenges your generous donation is needed.
You can now use our PayPal account or mail your contribution check to P.O.Box 394 Nanuet NY 10954 attention CUPON Chestnut Ridge.
Disclaimer: until we obtain our 501c3 tax status your contributions are not tax deductible.
Thank you for your understanding.
