6 Questions Woodbury Residents Should Ask About KJ's Proposed Emergency Road
Joel Mann, representing the Village of Kiryas Joel, is proposing a 25-foot-wide emergency connector road that would cut through land owned by the Village of Woodbury.
Above: A Partial image of the proposed emergency connector road that would cut through Woodbury. A complete image and other documentation relating to this project can be found here in the Village of Woodbury’s online document center.
What's your vision of Southern Orange County over the next fifty years?
My vision is that of a preventable ecological disaster worsened by extreme heat, deadly storms, and drought.
One where the City of Kiryas Joel (incorporating South Blooming Grove and much of Woodbury) continues to expand, eventually overtaking Monroe and Blooming Grove and turning Chester into the City's suburbs.
You might ask yourself, how can we prevent this disaster while also accommodating the continued growth of our friends and neighbors in the City of Joel, mass migration from parts of New York City that will be routinely underwater, and further migration from what the World Bank predicts will be 250 million, or more, climate refugees.
Many readers will not like the answer.
That’s because part of it requires cooperation and coordination with the City of Joel. They would be right to be skeptical and doubtful, given the often hostile and completely opaque decision-making on behalf of Hanhallah (the City's leadership, or more specifically, Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum).
Today's story is an example of why people are skeptical of the City and its lack of transparency. And that skepticism was visible during the June 24th Village of Woodbury Planning Board meeting. Particularly in the comments made by the Board when a proposed emergency road through Woodbury that would, pinky swear, only be used in times of emergency as deemed by the Village of Kiryas Joel Fire Company.
As you'll see in the video, no one from the public was there. Attendance at public meetings is a major recurring problem here in Southern Orange County. Nothing will change until this is fixed and people attend these meetings. I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t like the local washed-up, fascist rodeo clown show, you need to be there to voice your disapproval of it.
At 24:52, Mr. Joel Mann of Brach and Mann Associates and John C. Cappello, partner at J&G Law LLP, begin their presentation.
Mr. Mann is known locally as the designer and coordinator of the Veyoel Moshe Gardens, the ever-expanding condominium project across from the State Troopers on Ninninger Road and County Route 105. So, if anyone is deeply familiar with the traffic situation created on County Route 105, it'd be Mr. Mann.
According to documentation submitted to the Woodbury Planning Board:
"The Dinev Road neighborhood has 400+ families, a big schul, and a supermarket on multiple sites, all with a single point of access as Dinev Road connects to Bakertown Road. At the intersection of Dinev and Bakertown, there are 3 commercial properties, the KJ Auto, the KJ School District, and the KJ Poultry Plant, with many buses and trucks and trailer traffic, many times the larger trailers blocking the traffic on the single entrance causing delays and blocking emergency vehicles, etc. Causing anxiety and panic whenever that happens."
To alleviate this "anxiety and panic," the Village of Kiryas Joel is receiving an easement from Acres Road II Holding LLC and Harkiryah Affordable Housing of KJ Corp to build a 25-foot emergency connector road, which you can see pictured above at the start of this post.
The documentation continues:
"This proposed road will be gated and controlled by the Village of Kiryas Joel Fire Company to be opened in times of emergency when access via Dinev Road is blocked due to accident, inclement weather, or other required emergency response."
As a member of the Planning Board pointed out, this proposal feels less like an emergency connector road and more like an "Inconvenience Road" to be opened whenever someone (in this case, the Kiryas Joel Fire Company) decides to do so.
When asked why only a single access point exists between the school, the Poultry Plant, and the apartment complex, Mr. Mann stated that residents fought against adding an additional road.
The Planning Board did not ask Mr. Mann if KJ Poultry's Chaim Oberlander — a large donor to Congressman Pat Ryan — had been approached about alternative means to alleviate the truck traffic, which Mr. Mann cited as one of the critical sources of congestion that created the need for this emergency connector.
If many of those trucks belong to Mr. Oberlander, that information seems relevant to share in an upcoming Planning Board meeting.
The Planning Board also did not ask Mr. Mann if Mr. Joel Petlin, superintendent of Kiryas Joel School District, had been approached about what the school district could do to potentially alleviate the congestion caused by bus traffic that Mr. Mann cited.
The materials presented to the Planning Board should have included information from the school district. Hopefully, more information will be forthcoming.
The owner of the "big schul" was also not mentioned, and it was not discussed whether or not the owner had been approached about methods to help alleviate the congestion.
There are also at least six unanswered questions stemming from the Short Environmental Assessment Form that Woodbury residents should ask their Planning Board to investigate:
1. Mr. Mann stated that this emergency connector road is permitted under the Village of Woodbury's Zoning Regulations. Is it?
2. Mr. Man stated that this emergency connector road is consistent with the adopted Village of Woodbury Comprehensive plan. Is it? The Planning Board expressed skepticism, given the width of the proposed road.
3. On this form, Mr. Man stated that the proposed action (building the connector road) would substantially increase traffic. Can he explain how an emergency connector road, meant to alleviate traffic since it would only be used by emergency vehicles, would lead to an increase in traffic?
4. Mr. Man stated that Wetlands were present but offered no mitigation efforts to preserve them or find equivalent wetland space that could be preserved elsewhere to offset the loss of these. Are there wetlands, perhaps on the ACE Farm property, that could be provided to the Village of Woodbury to offset the loss of these wetlands from the construction of the connector road?
5. Mr. Mann stated that the endangered Northern Long-Eared Bat would be impacted, but no mitigation efforts were mentioned. How does the Village of Kiryas Joel hope to assist in preserving this endangered species?
6. Mr. Mann stated that the construction and completion of the road would discharge stormwater. Still, no plan or anything was discussed in the paperwork about managing that. This dangerous situation could harm Kiryas Joel and Woodbury residents, given the regular torrential downpours Southern Orange County now receives whenever there's a storm. What will the Village of Kiryas Joel do to protect these residents?
During the presentation, Mr. Mann should have explained how often emergencies occurred on the current road that would necessitate constructing this emergency bypass. He didn't.
He also stated that the road would be open to the public when not in use. Still, on the Short Environmental Assessment Form under pedestrian and bicycle access, Mr. Man checked "no." This was very confusing. If the road is open to the public, wouldn't you want a bicycle and/or a walking trail installed for the public?
The Planning Board asked who would control access to this road and how it would be used. The answer seems to be that the Kiryas Joel Fire Company would control it, but the board expressed interest in also being able to control the road.
They also asked how the supermarket parking lot, located in the path of the proposed connector road, would be impacted and what mitigation efforts there might be for shoppers. An answer still needs to be provided on that front.
So, What's The Long-Term Solution?
I'm a broken record on this, but the solution is for Mr. Gedalya Segedin, the Robert Moses (city planner) of Kiryas Joel, to put forth his plans for constructing the City—all of them. Currently, neighboring municipalities have to guess at what the plan is, and respond only to the limited information provided to them. For example, during his presentation, Mr. Mann suggested that the emergency connector road could eventually become a regular road.
Our elected leaders need to get a straight answer from Mr. Segedin concerning "What will Southern Orange County look like in 50 years?"
It will then be up to Woodbury, Monroe, and Blooming Grove—collectively—to negotiate with Mr. Segedin and devise a plan that works for all parties.
That plan should include adopting mass transit, preserving as much green space as possible to help cut down on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, and building affordable, high-density housing with the latest environmentally sustainable technology. For example, given that our part of New York will see both extreme drought AND extreme flooding, any new construction must incorporate water recycling, filtration, and rainwater capture systems to ensure all residents have access to clean water during drought.
This high density housing should also be restricted to specific areas and concealed as much as possible so as not to detract from the area’s scenery, which many people come here to enjoy.
Unfortunately, I don't see this constructive dialogue happening.
We need more people to attend meetings and we need our elected leaders to make Gedalya Segedin to put his cards on the table.
Until that happens, there's too much distrust, most of which is warranted, of the City of Kiryas Joel to work together on a plan that benefits both current and future residents.