Drama Filled Meetings Close Out Busy Month of May in Monroe
Both the Town Planning Board and Town Zoning Board of Appeals met on a number of controversial issues which included our old friends at US Asia Global Inc. and Tim Mitts.
Tomorrow, I’ll continue this week’s look at the climate challenges facing our area as the Summer gets underway.
We can expect 2024 to be hotter than 2023, the hottest year ever recorded. In addition to that heat, we can also expect to see more flooding, more orange skies caused by Canadian forest fires, and drought. The latter being something to keep an eye on as it relates to water restrictions in Woodbury and the complete lack of water for residents of South Blooming Grove.
For now, let’s turn our attention to the Town of Monroe May 21st, 2024 Planning Board Meeting and the Town of Monroe, May 28th, 2024 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.
Often, not much happens, and I skip over covering these.
But this time, the Planning Board featured the return of Meadow Hills Subdivision LLC and Monroe Commons. Both are projects we’ve covered extensively here at The Monroe Gazette.
The Zoning Board featured a combative Tim Mitts, who is facing Dorey Houle on June 25th for the Conservative Party Ballot line. Regardless of your opinion of Mr. Mitts, this was an eventful appearance due to the rampant (and verifiable) interference by Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone into Mr. Mitt’s project. This interference has led to a lawsuit, with the Town of Monroe taxpayers now on the hook for.
So let’s take a closer look at what’s happening …
May 21st, 2024 Town of Monroe Planning Board
First up was 24 Raywood LLC, which I don’t know much about and which the Board quickly opened and closed the public hearing. This was a bit concerning for a couple of reasons:
It’s an LLC. Extra scrutiny should be required given the federal government’s ongoing crackdown against LLCs due to their use for money laundering.
The public hearing should be left open for at least three meetings when any LLC is involved. Especially in instances like this where the applicant wants 14 trees to be removed.
Honestly, I don’t care if someone owns or wants to use an LLC, but the beneficial owner of that LLC should be listed on all documentation shared with the board, and on documentation that board shares with the public.
As you can see here, no name is provided to identify the beneficial owner of the LLC. (We’ll circle back to this when we talk about Meadow Hills Subdivision LLC below.)
Just listing the LLC is not acceptable. This cannot be standard practice anymore given the federal crackdown on LLCs.
Town residents — and this is true elsewhere in the State, not just in Monroe — should not have to spend $5-$15 to find out who owns an LLC by ordering copies of the Articles of Incorporation with the State Department.
Residents also shouldn’t have to spend (sometimes hours) trying to locate the correct LLC’s Department of State (DOS) ID # in order to first find them in that database to order those records.
It’s not acceptable to just have LLC name appear before the planning board with their “authorized representative” given the demonstrated pattern of bad behavior over the last 50+ years here in Orange County.
A half-century of bullshit is enough evidence to support tighter regulation and enforcement on LLCs appearing before any board in Orange, Rockland, and Sullivan county.
Monroe Commons
The Public Comment period was closed for this project back during the Christmas holiday last year (2023), so aside from showing up to the planning board and making angry faces at the Planning Board, I’m not sure what else can be done with this.
Note: You should absolutely go to a Planning Board meeting and make angry faces at the Board members whenever this project comes up. It makes absolutely no sense to build in this location, and seems like it’s only being considered because the developer, Lipa Deutsch, is buddies with Supervisor Tony Cardone.
What is known is that Orange County informed Chairwoman Bonnie Franson that the sewer district is at capacity, meaning — if we’re being honest — that nothing should be built in Southern Orange County until that situation is resolved.
The project’s representatives also continue to pretend that this project won’t cause a traffic hazard on Ninninger road.
Chairwoman Franson thankfully pushed back on this and deferred to Orange County’s Department of Public Works (OCDPW). I’ve reached out to OCDPW for clarification on where things stand on the traffic front.
The Monroe Commons representatives then tried to blame the county for not acting fast enough, but Chairwoman Franson shot that down by suggesting Monroe Commons LLC hasn’t provided what they were supposed to in a timely manner.
Speaking of LLCs, Monroe Commons in particular has made it incredibly difficult to identify who the beneficial owner is on their paperwork. That’s reason enough to reject the project.
If you can’t readily identify the owner of an LLC, the LLC is not in compliance with the new LLC transparency laws. This federal law requires LLC’s to identify their owners to FinCen.
In addition, Monroe Commons also recently updated how much water it would use, which requires a letter from Kiryas Joel to state they approve of the increase water usage. This won’t be a problem because the pipeline tapping into New York City’s water supply should be operational.
(Of course, New York City may beg to differ when they find their reservoir is being used above and beyond what they’ve agreed to, but that’s a story for another time.)
It’s honestly insane to me that we’re still talking about Monroe Commons and that it got as far as it did before the Planning Board.
You have a major road connecting to the High School and Middle School, and to Route 32, that’s already overcapacity.
There is no movement (yet) from Orange County to construct the new roads and extensions that would be needed to even make this project feasible.
And yet, here we are.
The attorney for Monroe Commons, naturally, is saying the project is ready to move forward.
So far, the project hasn’t moved forward. The Planning Board members seem to be on the same page as the larger Monroe community concerning the traffic concerns, but we’ll see if Mr. Cardone starts to pressure them to move the project forward given his relationship to its developer.
Meadow Hill Subdivision
Last but not least, it’s our old friends: David Breier, Mr. Joseph Breier, and Abraham A. Berkovic.
This group was defeated in Chester, despite their best efforts, thanks to the passage of the building moratorium.
Now they’re back with the other half of their project. (Remember - Oakwood Subdivision and Meadow Hill Subdivision are right next to each other, only separated by the Chester-Monroe boundary line.)
Meadow Hill Subdivision and Oakwood Subdivison were created within a few weeks of each other and filed by the same guy with the department of state: File Right LLC’s Mark Fuchs.
In both cases, you have to wind your way through an hours long maze to identify the beneficial owner of both companies. It’s not Mark Fuchs. I initially thought it was. It’s David and his son, Joseph, and Mr. Berkovic.
So, when the representative of this project told Mrs. Franson this evening that Meadow Hill Subdivision LLC is not tied to Oak Wood Subdivision LLC, that was a lie.
I informed the Chairwoman of this, but we’ll just have to wait and see if that fabrication matters to her or not.
I think it’s grounds for the application to be tossed, but what do I know? I’m just a reporter.
And finally …
Henry Farm Site Walk
As you’re reading this, the Town Planning Board has either visited the proposed Henry Farm site, or will do so by this weekend.
Still no word on this project otherwise. But. Keep in mind that Meadow Hill Subdivision, Oak Wood Subdivision, and 651 Lakes (the short term rental) are all circling the Henry Farms property.
I don’t believe in coincidence. Do you?
The probability is high that all four of these projects are connected.
I think the goal is to flip the land to the Henry Farms developer, but that’s just an educated guess.
For now.
May 21st, 2024 Town of Monroe ZBA Meeting
This is a long, complicated story that deserves its own post. I’ve been holding off on doing that post because I wanted to run it a bit closer to the June 25th Conservative Party Primary between Mrs. Houle and Mr. Mitts.
What I’ll do today is just highlight one key point, because if you watch the video above, you’re going to hear it referenced a lot.
In July of 2022, Mr. Mitts and company approached Town of Monroe Historian, James Nelson, about receiving a historical designation for the former Pine Crest Bungalow Colony. Like Rest Haven, Mitts is working to restore the property with the hope of turning the old bungalows into rentals.
Mr. Nelson, and Mrs. Maureen Richardson, are part of a very small group of Town officials and employees who are not, as I like to put it, “a cruel bunch of douche bags.” It’s a sin to consider how underpaid Mr. Nelson is compared to everyone else who works there. So, that’s a long way of saying I believe the Town Historian has integrity.
In October of 2022, Mr. Nelson granted Mr. Mitts the historic designation for Pine Crest. What that basically means, as far as the Town of Monroe goes, is that the outside of historic buildings need to be protected and preserved. The idea being, that they’re kept as close to their original state as possible while leaving the inside open for renovation.
In December of 2022, Cardone demanded information from the Town Historian concerning the designation granted to Mr. Mitts.
From there, Cardone began an extensive pressure campaign against Mitts. This includes allegedly filing a false report with the Town Building inspector, Ben Maldonado, stating that there was illegal work being done at the Pine Crest site. Something he would have no way of knowing unless he was tresspassing on the Pine Crest site.
Cardone also allegedly requested the interference of Chairwoman Bonnie Franson, having her work on his behalf to derail the project, all while attempted to strip the historical designation from Mitts.
There’s more. In fact, there’s an entire federal lawsuits worth of additional information to share. I will do so soon.
But for now, what I want you to consider is this: Supervisor Cardone is pushing a project, Monroe Commons, that really has no right to have made it as far as it did before the planning board. It’s completely illogical to advance given the current state of Ninninger Road and the years it will take to complete the road work needed to support that sort of project. All for the benefit of a single developer who Mr. Cardone has intervened on the behalf of before. For example, he once suggested at a Village of Monroe Board meeting that the Town take over a road in the village, in order to give Mr. Deutsch better zoning.
On the other hand, you have the Pine Crest project where Mr. Cardone is actively working to derail the project.
This is well beyond the purview of what a Town Supervisor is supposed to do. A Town Supervisor is not a king. They are there to make sure the meetings run properly, and that the money is being managed responsibly. Something that is NOT happening.
Beyond those two things, a Town Supervisor is no different than a Town Board member.
One thing I keep coming back to is that there’s no vision of the future here in Orange County. There’s no vision of the future for South Blooming Grove beyond making it a neighborhood of the city of Kiryas Joel. There’s no vision for the future of Woodbury beyond doing the same if Mr. Kelleman, Mr. Etzel Jr., and Mr. Freiband are successful.
Maybe that’s the case with Monroe.
Maybe we’re just letting these supervisors (Doles, Cardone, Leonard) play the fiddle while everything burns around them until it too becomes another neighborhood of the City of Joel.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The important thing is for you to stay engaged. Otherwise the LLCs and the corrupt politicians backing them will run all over you.