'With a loud voice and a firm conviction'

As reported by The Photo News and the Times-Herald Record, a petition was submitted recently to form a new religious village of Seven Springs by taking nearly 1,100 acres from the unincorporated area of the town of Monroe.
In both newspapers, the attorney for the village petitioners down plays this as a non-threatening event.
The plain facts belie his claim.
This is an attempt to gain higher density residential zoning – and development profits - than permitted by the Town of Monroe’s zoning code.
The small handful of wealthy land owners and developers behind the petition tried annexation to get 507 acres they control out of Monroe’s zoning and into the high-density zoning of the village of Kiryas Joel.
They got 164 acres in, but the rest remained under Monroe’s more restrictive, and for them, unsatisfactory, zoning.
The creation of Palm Tree didn’t solve their dissatisfaction with Monroe’s zoning for their lands. Just 56 additional acres moves into KJ’s zoning, while the rest remains under Monroe’s control. The land owners’ solution?
Do an end-around of Town control by creating the Village of Seven Springs because villages write their own zoning codes.
This self-serving village petition is an attack on the path to peaceful coexistence chosen by over 80 percent of the voters of Monroe on November 7th, 2017, when they voted to create Palm Tree.
As the Palm Tree solution made clear, the best results come from talking and negotiating, in good faith, a reasonable compromise.
According to last week’s Photo News story, this is just the start of a Town process that will take quite a while to advance, much less conclude.
When the opportunity comes to voice in public our opinions about the negative impacts on our Town, I hope Monroe will once again do so with a loud voice and a firm conviction to defend its quality of life.
Michael Egan
Monroe