The parsing of Monroe continues

By Bob Quinn
MONROE — A group of Monroe residents - representing no more than 600 men, women and children - have petitioned the Town Board to create their own village, to be called Seven Springs.
The municipality would be part of the Town of Monroe, like the Village of Monroe and the Village of Harriman as well as the Village of Kiryas Joel (until it is absorbed into the Town of Palm Tree in January 2019). This means its residents would pay town taxes as well as taxes to the Monroe-Woodbury School District, contribute revenue through mortgage taxes and perhaps eventually assert political influence in local elections akin to the KJ bloc vote.
The new municipality would be contiguous to the Village of Kiryas Joel, the Town of Palm Tree, the Village of Monroe, the Village of Harriman; the Village of Woodbury, the Town of Blooming Grove and Village of South Blooming Grove.
Steven Barshov, the attorney for the petitioners said the formation of a new village would not affect the Monroe-Woodbury School District nor would residents of Seven Springs have any more “power to affect Town elections after the formation of a village than they do now.
“The people who have petitioned to form the Village of Seven Springs,” Barshov added, “ are no different than people elsewhere in New York who believe that a smaller geographic area governed as a village creates a local government system that would be most responsive to their local needs. The creation of a village would enable the people who live within its boundaries to plan the type of local community they would like. The Town of Monroe focuses on matters from a town-wide perspective, while villages, like the Village of Monroe, have a more local focus. The same would be true of the Village of Seven Springs.”
State law allows as few as 500 people to petition for the creation of a village. Children too young to vote can included in that 500 figure.
When does the clock start?Monroe Town Supervisor said nothing will advance on the petition until litigation is settled on the annexation of land from the unincorporated portion of the Town of Monroe into the Village of Kiryas Joel.
One is the 164 acres that both the Town of Monroe and the Village of Kiryas Joel agreed to, and which was subsequently included in the agreement that led to the creation of the Town of Palm. (The new town will hold elections in November and open for business beginning Jan. 1, 2019.
The other is the 507 acres bid made by Kiryas Joel but which the Monroe Town Board rejected.
Orange County and a consortium of towns and villages surrounding Kiryas Joel pooled their resources to oppose in court the annexation bids.
Brendan Coyne, the mayor of Cornwall-on-Hudson who has acted as spokesman for the group of municipalities, said this week consortium is still in court.
Similarly, Justin Rodriguez, the assistant to the County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus, said the county has not withdrawn from the litigation.
“When will act - I can’t tell you if it will three months, six months, nine months,” Cardone said.
Once that happens, the town will have up to 30 days to validate the petitions. If the petitions are approved, the town would then need to schedule a public hearing within 30 days.
ZoningThe Times Herald-Record reported this week that as many as 1,600 housing units could be built within the proposed village.
Cardone said town officials had an inkling something was in the works regarding the petitions, but that he was surprised by the timing, considering the annexation litigation.
He noted that Herman Wagschal, who delivered the petitions to Monroe Town Hall, told him “I am here as a friend ... to all people.”
Cardone said they discussed zoning, within the town, within Kiryas Joel, what could be possible under Village of Seven Springs regulations.
The supervisor also said he came away from the encounter wondering if the petitioners felt slighted that they had not been included in the Town of Palm Tree.
Meanwhile, Barshov said that what binds the people who signed the petition “is their common desire to join to create a village for their own self-governance. This is the most fundamental form of democracy that exists in our country. All people in New York, no matter their background, race or religion, have the right to organize collectively and decide to self-govern. That is what binds the petitioners.”