KJ outgrowth expands

By Bob Quinn
HIGHLAND MILLS — A new 20-page real estate brochure distributed widely within the Village of Kiryas Joel and other Hasidic enclaves in New York offers a primer on buying property and obtaining mortgages.
The publication, Der Bayis, also details single-family retails in the Village of South Blooming Grove and homes for purchase in Woodbury.
The brochure, mostly in Yiddish but with half a dozen pages in English, is the latest evidence of what Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin has called “the KJ outgrowth.” That describes as the growing need for housing for Kiryas Joel families, who are looking to nearby communities in Blooming Grove, Monroe and Woodbury instead of waiting for housing being built in Kiryas Joel itself and that is planned in the 164-acre annexation area.
The Photo News had the brouchure translated by a person with no connection to Kiryas Joel. This was the same translator who the newspaper hired last year for publications that also address growth within the community.
The KJ outgrowthMonroe Town Supervisor Harley E. Doles estimates that the town’s population is 50,000, including 30,000 Hasidic residents. Kiryas Joel officials have said it’s population will double within a generation.
There are building moratoriums in Monroe and in neighboring communities. In Monroe, there are five developments on hold.
Just this week, the Times Herald-Record reported that Kiryas Joel will begin rezoning the 164-acres annexed from the Town of Monroe. The decision allowing the village to do that is still being appealed by a consortium of neighboring communities as well as the non-profit Preserve Hudson Valley.
Into this mix is a petition from more than 500 residents living in the section of Monroe north of Route 17 who have asked Orange County to allow it to secede from the Town of Monroe and create a new entity - the Town of North Monroe.
“North Monroe should be designed as a global settlement of all land and bloc-vote disputes in this area of the county,” Szegedin said in an email exchange with The Photo News earlier this month. “All bloc-voting communities should be melted into one Town of North Monroe, and be forever eliminated from having any political impact on Monroe or Woodbury and MWSD.”
Here are some of the highlights from the Day Bayis brochure:
Page 2Among the ads in English is a full-page advertisement by Exit Realty in Monroe.
The listings include:
• Country Hollow: Rare mint condition, split level, pvt. corner, 8 RM house on 2 acres. Dream Private Home. Asking $695,000.
• Monroe Dreamhouse 1: 3 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, large family room, 3 baths, 2 car garage, unfinished basement. 7 minute walk to KJ Business Center. $2,500/month rent
• New rental house on Duelk Avenue in Blooming Grove. $1,600 rent.
• Charming in BG: Affordable 1-family house, 4 BR, 2 bath. 6 Hawthorne Drive, Blooming Grove. Asking just $305,000.
Page 7MK Realty has a full-page ad that touts the success of the first phase of homes in Woodbury Junction. The ad seeks to attract homebuyers for a second phase of development.
Page 12Here is a full-page that begins: “Attention Business and Organization Owners: Enable your business to thrive at the newest commercial center in town.”
• Upscale offices and storefronts now available at 46 Bakertown Road.
• Second-level: Mall-style retain store fonts.
• Third, fourth and fifth levels: Small and large office rentals. Many great opportunities.
School boundariesThese properties are mostly within the Monroe-Woodbury School District; some of those in Blooming Grove are within the Washingtonville School District.
And while Hasidic families send their children to private yeshivas, the school districts are responsible for transportation costs. The districts also would be responsible for covering the cost of those children with special needs.
This situation is different than what could happen between Kiryas Joel and the Monroe-Woodbury School District. The KJ Superintendent of Schools Joel M. Petlin and the KJ School Board already have approved a local measure that would redraw the boundaries between the school districts to include the 164 acres acquired through annexation.
The Monroe-Woodbury School Board has yet to decide on the issue.
Village officials have long championed that point, viewing it as an assurance to the Monroe-Woodbury School District that it would not become like the East Ramapo School District. There, the large Hasidic population gained control of the school board through local elections. The district is under a state monitor because so many programs had been cut that it’s hard for a student to graduate high school.
But none of that assurances would operate outside the Village of Kiryas Joel.