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GREENBURGH, N.Y. — A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a decision that found the town of Greenburgh violated Fortress Bible Church's constitutional rights.
The decision issued Monday affirms U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Robinson's ruling on Aug. 12 that the town impermissibly prevented the church from building a new place of worship and school on Pomander Drive.
"We feel that it's a just decision," the church's pastor Rev. Dennis Karaman said. "Being able to build a new facility will be beneficial to our church's growth."
In a unanimous three-judge panel decision, Judge John Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote that the Town Board violated the church's rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Fortress Bible bought a 6.5-acre parcel of land on Pomander Drive in 1998 and sent a proposal to build a new facility, to which the town put through an environmental review process.
The town continued to resist the project over the following years, first stating zoning and traffic issues and finally issuing a State Environmental Quality Review Act in July 2000 when Town Planning Commissioner Anthony Russo said the church mitigated those traffic concerns.
In a July 2000 meeting, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said he was concerned with the church's tax-exempt status and asked it to donate a fire truck or make some other payment in lieu of taxes, Walker wrote.
After the series of contentious administrative proceedings preventing the Church's project from moving forward, Walker wrote, the church sued Greenburgh, the Town Board and several board members.
"In no sense do we believe that ordinary environmental review considerations are subject to RLUIPA," Walker wrote in the ruling, adding that Greenburgh council members "disingenuously used SEQRA to obstruct and ultimately deny the Church's project."
Fortress Bible Church is a Pentecostal church in Mount Vernon, where the current facility is only able to hold approximately 175 members. The proposed Pomander Drive property would accommodate 500 people and a school of 150 students.
Feiner said he's disappointed about the outcome of the appeal, adding that the federal law should be changed to give local governments more power over the community's zoning laws.
"It was a legitimate traffic safety concern because of site distance and traffic flow," Feiner said. "We did not articulate effectively why we did what we did. We're not against the church, not against the synagogues, we're just against its location."
Comments (5)
There's no need for opinion here or for Feiner's attempts to twist what really happened. These are direct quotes from The U.S. Court of Appeals decision unanimously affirming that Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, Councilwoman Diana Juettner and other Town of Greenburgh officials repeatedly violated the federal and state constitutional rights of the Fortress Bible Church by lying, manipulating, extorting and destroying evidence, which will cost residents $6 MILLION:
“Town Supervisor Paul Feiner stated that he was concerned with the Church’s tax exempt status and asked it to donate a fire truck or make some other payment in lieu of taxes. … The Church declined.” The Town Board then ignored the Town Planning Commissioner’s negative SEQRA declaration and issued a positive declaration process, forcing years of delays. (p.7)
After almost a year of delays by the Town, Reverend “Karaman met with Feiner to discuss the review process. Karaman asked what he could do to move the process along, and Feiner responded that the Church could agree to make yearly financial contributions to the fire department.” (p.8)
“The Town attempted to extort from the Church a payment in lieu of taxes, it ignored and then replaced its Planning Commissioner when he advocated on the Church’s behalf, and Town staff intentionally destroyed relevant evidence.” (p.22)
“There was no rational basis for the Town’s actions. … The Town had acted in bad faith and disingenuously misused the SEQRA process to block the Church’s project.” (p.24-25)
“The Town’s determination was not supported by substantial evidence because the Town’s stated concerns were either “unsupported” or “wholly fabricated.” … The record contains ample evidence to support the district court’s conclusion that the Town’s actions were wholly disingenuous.” (p.34)
Oh but there's more.
Living on Pomander Drive (at the time) was/is a former chair of the Greenburgh Ethics Board which never met despite plenty of Feiner generated opportunities. A fund raiser which raised $38,000 mostly from developers who were active in Greenburgh is one example.
But it seems that the Church had purchased a house on Pomander for the purpose of tearing it down and using it as the exit from the main property with the idea that this would ease the traffic flow and counter objections. You can imagine how warmly residents on Pomander would respond to the flow of vehicles going past their homes. And let me repeat, the former Chair of the Greenburgh Board of Ethics lived on Pomander.
Like a recipe, keep stirring until thoroughly blended in. A former Chair of the Greenburgh Board of Ethics lived on Pomander. A former Chair of the Greenburgh Board of Ethics...
Amen! I have so much to say but that pretty much sums it up. I live right near where the church will be built and no matter the inconvenience, which I imagine will be less than the haters are claiming, I will endure it knowing that Fortress Bible has been given the run around for way too long. Amen!
"It was a legitimate traffic safety concern because of site distance and traffic flow," Feiner said. "We did not articulate effectively why we did what we did. We're not against the church, not against the synagogues, we're just against its location."
On the same road (Dobbs Ferry Road), sharing the same exit and access to the Sprain Parkway but 1/8th of a mile away, is the former Frank's Nursery location which Feiner very much wants to lease to an indoor, bubbled Sports facility operated by GameOn. Despite the commercial use in a residentially zoned area and despite the eight story proposed height exceeding existing restrictions by at least five stories, Feiner has been pushing for this lease and the Town Board has already voted to allow Feiner to sign the lease.
What makes it "interesting" is that the Town Board's enabling Resolution was passed despite seeking a property appraisal, despite the existing zoning issues, despite a prior and required environmental study AND despite a traffic impact study.
The Fortress Bible Church and School IS going to be built; now partly financed by the coming judgement against the Town which will be paid not from insurance proceeds (no payoff for civil rights violations) but from additional taxation upon residents because of Feiner's continuing mismanagement and perfidy. By the way, all this costly bickering in Court is itself also adding to the taxpayer burden.
But since Feiner's concern and rationalization for inviting the legal action against the Town was supposed to be about traffic concerns, doesn't it seem "odd" that the realization that the Church will be coming and despite that reality that adding to the traffic with the sports bubble (for the benefit of a private, for-profit partnership) doesn't appear to bother Feiner?
Consider this an example of little apparent impact or concern to neighbors.
A soccer mom drives her darling Jack and Jill to the bubble (trip #1), depositing them for their activity and in GameOn's care while she leaves to take care of, say, shopping (trip #2). Later she returns to pick her darlings up (trip #3). Reunited, everyone goes home (trip #4).
Apparently all cars on the road are not equal. Only those driven by those attending religious events or religious school are those that breed traffic.
So what's the difference?
Being a friend of Feiner is having Feiner for a friend. Unfortunately, it is the town's taxpayers who are stuck with the tax bill that such friendship brings.
Disagree? Ask Feiner's friends in the Mayfair-Knollwood Civic Association who got their good Friend to give half of the WESTHELP lease rent to their school district. A gift to a few the consent of Feiner on behalf of all Greenburgh taxpayers.
When a Judge ruled against that largesse, Feiner countered by removing the source, WESTHELP rent ($1,200,000 annually) from his dance card -- this accomplished by letting their lease expire (September 30, 2011) without renewal.
This means $0 revenue to the Town ever since. That's why Feiner is pushing a package of three controversial leases (tennis bubble, GameOn and, Ferncliff College) because they would bring much needed revenue to the Town to hold taxes down and retain programs. Still, the rent from all three combined still falling short of just the WESTHELP rent and none of the leases, if signed, would begin paying rent for six months to three years from signing.
And hopefully not lost in the shuffle is the re-affirmation by the Judge(s) in the Appeal decision that Feiner and his minions lied and destroyed documents in the process of losing their taxpayer subsidized Court case.
That's your Town Supervisor in action.
Hal Samis
Why isn't this man in jail? He was found guilty of violating constitutional rights (something he always blames other for?) and for destroying public records. Anyone else would be indicted on criminal charges. He has now exposed Greenburgh taxpayers to $2 million dollars more, not including legal fees we paid. When is enough, enough? He claims that traffic studies proved that the church was not a viable use of the property when traffic study after traffic study proved otherwise. These studies costs tens of thousands of dollars. The simple fact is the applicant didn't give in to his demands for "donations" to the Fairview Fire District, something he asked for, not them. Hopefully the taxpayers will remember this in 2013 before they vote him back into office and maybe, just maybe, the NYS Attorney General will consider an investigation.