Thirteen members of the Warwick NY Planning Board were on hand to listen to a standing room only crowd of more than 100 Warwick residents who attended to voice their opinion and/or learn more about the proposed project, Old Forge Road, LLC , an application for Site Plan Approval and Special Use Permit for the use and interior renovations of the existing 87,000± sq. ft. buildings for an “Institution of Higher Learning” a/k/a Beth Medrash Meor Yitzchok (BMMY) with 200 students with 12 to 18 professors/administrators with overnight accommodations. The project falls under Use Group 84, with parking area improvements situated on tax parcels S 83 B 1 L 2 and L 5.1; parcels located on the south eastern side of Old Forge Road 0 feet south eastern of Sterling Pines Road (57-61 Old Forge Rd.), in the LC zone, of the Town of Warwick, County of Orange, State of New York.
The Planning Board had already received over 217 written letters and emails from residents who expressed their desire to have the planning board either reject the application or request a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that would further request the applicant to provide even more detail about its proposed project. Several board members revealed that even more comments were continuing to arrive and would be added to the record of comments. In addition more than 40 attendees had signed up to speak during the hearing, requiring the Board Chair, Ben Astorino, to set a three-minute limit to comments that would be entered into the record for the hearing. Several times Astorino had to warn the assembled crowd against applauding after each presentation because it would not only delay the proceeding but would interfere with the recording device’s ability to accurately record the comments made by the presenters.
At the core of the hearing was the need to gather additional information from the public in order to determine if an EIS would be needed, and to determine if the detailed information and data that the applicant, BMMY, had already provided would suffice. But a number of presenters had submitted extensive documentation to the contrary, in their opinion, that would not prevent the applicant from further providing more evidence of its plans. After the Board Attorney, Robert Krahulik, Esq., and Board Professionals Max Stach, AICP and Laura A. Barca, PE, Henningson, Durham & Richardson Architecture and Engineering, P.C. (HDR), had presented a detailed summary of the current status of the project, Chairman Astorino invited the speakers to address the board while speaking into a microphone in order to record their comments and enable the crowd to hear what they had to say.
One of the first presenters was Warwick resident, Geof Howard, who commented “I think the question right now is what happens with a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) review and my firm request and my firm hope is that you will adopt a SEQR review of this entire process.” Rebecca Quackenbush followed with a request to issue a “positive declaration under SEQR for the proposed project that presents a moderate to large impact on the ecological integrity of Sterling Forest particularly on its federally and state listed sensitive species of which you have noted here tonight. These are not fringe organisms; these are keystone indicators of functioning ecosystems. All three are known to inhabit or depend on habitat directly adjacent to and potentially within the project site the northern long eared bat is currently listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act due to white nose syndrome and Sterling Forest this species is extraordinarily expensive to forest fragmentation and human disturbance – exactly what this project entails through site clearing lighting and noise.”
Typical of many of the comments was from Roger Friedman, a resident of Sterling Forest, who said that “there’s a total of about 30 occupied residences around the southern shores through the league they form a distinct and integral settlement and I estimate the total population of all these homes at about 45. That the proposed action will not increase the population of any town or city by more than 5% can only be accepted if the board ignores the real facts of the locality and signs on to a technicality population of the town of Warwick will be largely unchanged. [In fact] the proposed action with this dormitory for 200 men will increase the population of the community by more than 400% consider merely the 23 residences uphill of the visitor center.”
Some of the presenters were critical of the reputation of the applicant whose history in Orange County has been marked by a series of small developments that evolved into self-contained, self-ruled governments. Initially they appear to adhere to local regulations that are later ignored with impunity. Warwick resident Kerry Cohen, commented about the applicant’s history in ignoring limits to its development in places like South Blooming Grove, Kiryas Joel, Palm Tree, and Ramapo. “Once [these communities] were a great place for people to buy their first home, but now they are completely unrecognizable. The United Talmudic Academy has benefitted from the lawsuits over illegal pipelines being built and water rights but the fact of the matter is that the town’s watershed ability was permanently impacted. You’ve heard about the horror stories from boards not so dissimilar from yours, like Ramapo, where in 2009 faced a hostile takeover of its school district.” In 2023 during an interview in Shtetl, Haredi Free Press, Cohen reminded those present what BMMY’s leader, Rabbi Teitelbaum, remarked: “We live in exile in America, in a decadent land, and we need to be sealed away from our surroundings, so as to remember that we do not reside in America; we are only in America at present.” The audience immediately reacted to Cohen’s comments with thunderous applause but the Chairman had to quiet members down and remind them to please refrain from applauding to any of the comments made for reasons he had mentioned earlier. Other presenters reinforced Cohen’s remarks saying that the attempt by the applicant, BMMY, to appear to respond to earlier requests by the Planning Board were not sincere and questioned who is going to enforce the all-male population of students, the limit of four to a tiny dorm room, and the disallowing of families to reside there.
Kenneth English, a Tuxedo resident, which borders the Sterling Forest Property, indicated to the board that the “impact of a residential College in the middle of this Oasis requires a positive declaration on the SEQR. Obviously, you guys have done a lot of work on this and very much appreciated; I think though getting it right requires a really deep dive that would come from a positive declaration so thank you very much for your hard work on this.”
As the hearing reached the two-and-a-half hour mark, some of those who signed up began to cede their time to others rather than repeat what had already been introduced earlier. Brenda Wiley who had grown up in Rockland county learned to ski in Sterling Forest like and experience the outdoor beauty. I have grave concerns about whether this project should be approved and how it could potentially impact the environment, the ecological system of protected habitats, pollution, the potential need for increased emergency services, and the agencies that support residents in the event of a natural disaster.” And retired Town historian, Dr. Richard Hull, stated that “It’s a precious thing that we have and it’s the result of a lot of people and a lot of citizens to make sure that the land will remain pristine and will remain our lungs – the oxygen that the millions of trees in Sterling Forest park produce. And it’s the people who work to put that together, the institutions, individuals, foundations, the state of New Jersey, the state of New York, the federal government. There are so many entities responsible for the saving of Sterling Forest that it’s become a legacy that can’t be overlooked.”
