We are back!

After a brief hiatus, SV-CUPON is back with a new meeting place and time. Many thanks to St. Paul’s AME for allowing us to use their space for several meetings earlier this year.

Our next meeting will be at the First Baptist Church, 3 Hoyt Street, on Tuesday, Nov 13 at 7:00 PM.

What has been happening with land use boards in Spring Valley? These include the village board, the planning board, and the ZBA. SV-CUPON members have attended several meetings.

On a technical level, you could say the land use boards are dysfunctional. The meetings are chaotic. The agendas and minutes are unavailable. The web site has been down for months.

However, in another sense, the boards are functioning just as the leadership intends them to function.They are enriching speculators and developers by approving ever-increasing density on ever-smaller lots, at the expense of the quality of life of the residents of the village.

Fortunately, Rockland County is doing what it can to control the irresponsible village boards. When the village ignores laws that require county input, the developers find that they can’t get water or sewer hookups from the county. This has forced many projects back to the village boards.

You can read the opinions of the Rockland County Planning board at: http://rocklandgov.com/departments/planning/land-use/general-municipal-law/gml-reviews-by-municipality-2/

In 2018 alone, there were 160 applications from Spring Valley reviewed by the Rockland County Planning Board. Compare this to Nyack, which had three, and Haverstraw, which had 7.

The reason there are so many projects in Spring Valley is that the village has essentially announced that it will not defend its code. Things that would never fly elsewhere are almost guaranteed to pass in Spring Valley.

Even when the County Planning Board recommends disapproval, saying that “doubling of the residential density … will generate more traffic on the local streets, leading to congestion and traffic conflicts (and) an oversized residential building on an undersized parcel … will set a precedent that will negatively impact its community character”. the village boards actually override the county board, over the objections of neighbors, who affirm the findings of the county.

Don’t be a wallflower! Get involved, come to our meetings, or the village meetings. The schedule is on our calendar page. We are looking forward to seeing you!