Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Does 1,000 Rabbis Equal a Wal-Mart?
Sunday, January 21, 2007

My friend Peter Applebome has a fascinating piece in the NYT (hidden behind the firewall) about a showdown outside New York City between a rabbinical college that wants to open a facility to train 1,000 rabbis to adjudicate religious disputes and the local town that would be overrun, instantly tripling in size and losing its local character.

Ground zero at the moment is a wooded corner at Route 202 and Route 306. One side of Route 202 in the unincorporated town of Ramapo is the site of a zoning battle over 200 acres likely to house multifamily homes and religious schools built by a Brooklyn developer. But the main issue for now is the other side, in the village of Pomona.
THERE, on a 100-acre tract purchased for $13 million, a Brooklyn-based group called the Congregational Rabbinical College of Tartikov plans a college where, organizers say, 1,000 rabbis, living with their families, would study for 15 years to become religious judges presiding over civil disputes among Orthodox Jews.
A formal proposal is not likely before late February, but on a property zoned for single-family homes on one acre, drawings and plans developed by the group show as many as 10 buildings with space for at least 4,500 residents, parking for 1,000 cars and buildings as high as six stories.
Given the size of the families in nearby Hasidic communities, the population estimate is probably low. All this in a village with a population of around 3,200.Residents are stunned.

The town is using the argument towns often make against Wal-Mart, the community would kill the town. The college, meanwhile, is citing a federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (known by its acronym, Rluipa, and pronounced ar-LOO-pah). Enacted by Congress to “protect religious liberty and for other purposes,” it says municipalities must be able to show a “compelling” public interest in rejecting land-use proposals by religious groups.

The article is probably inaccessible to many, but here's a summary in the local paper.

Labels: Judaism, Politics in America

Posted by B Feiler at 6:13 PM
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1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: I live in Pomona, our town has 1,900 registered voters. In my opinion, the development is questionable as to its religious basis, if you look at the site plan it has one small "school" and housing for as many as 1,000 "students" and their families (estimated population of 4,500). Residence will be for 15 years while they "study". Our infrastructure can't support this, nor should our tax dollars go to support a development of this size. If it passes, our village board will be ousted, zoning will go away, and more properties will fall prey to this developer. This is economic terrorism as a way to conduct a hostile takeover of a beautiful rural village.

RLUIPA is misguided and stupid legislation.; January 24, 2007 12:21:00 PM EST