בזיונות אין רעקארד פאר די אלייענס היינט

KJ expansion deal unlikely

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Woodbury – The notion that the land dispute welling up between this town and neighboring Kiryas Joel could be resolved without a court fight had popped up in print – a suggestion floated by a Kiryas Joel official.
But two weeks later, that notion doesn't appear to be going anywhere, at least not with Woodbury leaders and the activists determined to block any expansion of Kiryas Joel.
The Woodbury Town Board is crafting a written response fully explaining its position. But the gist, Supervisor Sheila Conroy flatly stated, is: "The Town of Woodbury is not interested in sitting down to carve up the Town of Woodbury."
Meanwhile, the Southern Orange County Alliance, a Woodbury-based citizens' group opposed to a Kiryas Joel expansion, has reduced its own response to three words, now cropping up on roadside signs: "Not One Inch."
"When someone's position is how much of what you have will they take, where's there any opening for any sort of rational negotiations to take place?" Jonathan Swiller, a SOCA leader, asked yesterday.
At stake is the future zoning and development of land surrounding Kiryas Joel, a fast-growing Hasidic community of 16,000. Much of that land belongs to Hasidic land interests, who likely want it annexed into Kiryas Joel someday so it can be developed with multi-family housing.
But many neighbors oppose dense development, putting the two communities at loggerheads.
The "Not One Inch" campaign stems from statements by Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin in a Dec. 5 Times Herald-Record article, suggesting the two sides could avoid a court battle by negotiating which parcels his village would annex.
"Let's have a mutual agreement," he said then. "Why do the judges and the courts have to decide these issues?"
Yesterday, he said he never meant the two sides should sit down with a map and discuss how to divide the territory.
And Kiryas Joel Mayor Abraham Wieder said his village would dampen the latest flames of opposition by halting consideration of any annexation proposals for at least six months. "I think there should be some cooling off period," he said.
At the moment, the only pending annexation request is one filed by his political opponents in the Kiryas Joel Alliance, which has petitioned for 184 acres to be annexed into Kiryas Joel from Monroe and Woodbury.
Organizers of that effort are working on an environmental assessment form that must be completed before any municipalities will review the request further.
The Kiryas Joel Alliance, which has been calling for more peaceful relations with neighbors, called this latest development a positive move.
"I am pleased that village officials responded positively to our call for peace," said Pinkus Jakobowitz, an Alliance leader.

A furious campaign erupted to block Kiryas Joel's proposal to tap into New York City's water supply,a project that until then had aroused little opposition but was now seen as the key to Kiryas Joel's future growth. And a movement began to incorporate new villages outside of Kiryas Joel, including one encompassing most of the Town of Woodbury.