NEW HEMPSTEAD — A Route 306 religious school continues to hold classes for children in a former single-family house despite being taken to Ramapo Town Court for operating illegally and after yeshiva officials promised the village mayor they would first seek approvals.
Congregation Ohr Torah went before Ramapo Justice Rhoda Schoenberger on Tuesday and got another 30 days to move ahead on filing plans and going before village planning and zoning boards. The congregation lacks a certificate of occupancy and approvals to operate a school in the house and an addition.
While the village recently issued summonses carrying potentially thousands of dollars in fines, Schoenberger told lawyers for the school and village that she’s powerless to close the school, officials said. She also told the lawyers this was her first view of the case.
The usual method for dealing with an illegal school in Ramapo is for the town or municipality to seek a closure order from a state Supreme Court justice based on health and safety conditions. The usual result has been that state judges give the school time to put in required fire and safety equipment and to go before local planning and zoning boards.
The lack of such enforcement led New Hempstead to incorporate as a village to control its own zoning in 1983, so the illegal school is operating with the village’s de facto consent.
New Hempstead Mayor Lawrence Dessau said Wednesday that if the village doesn’t get anywhere before Schoenberger, officials would consider going to a higher court.
Dessau acknowledged he allowed the school to operate without permits after yeshiva officials promised to legalize the building, which lacks a certificate of occupancy. They never got approvals to convert the building into a school or for construction of an addition.
Village Attorney Keith Cornell is prosecuting the congregation before Schoenberger. The case is in Ramapo Town Court because New Hempstead doesn’t have its own court.
Dessau, a New Hempstead board member since the village’s incorporation, said he felt confident giving the yeshiva extra time, believing it would make good on its promises because its attorney, Ira M. Emanuel, was involved.
“I had hoped this might have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion already like they promised,” Dessau said. “I tried to give them room to get everything legal. All they had to do is move out and get all the necessary approvals. It hasn’t really worked out well.”
Emanuel said the congregation would go before the village planning and zoning boards. He didn’t attend the court appearance before Schoenberger.
Emanuel said the operators pleaded not guilty to the village charge of occupancy without a certificate of occupancy. He declined to comment on whether the congregation is holding classes inside the building but has acknowledged no certificate of occupancy exists.
“We are working diligently and cooperatively with the village to have this thing legalized and permitted,” Emanuel said. “We advised the judge we’re in the process of putting together an application for site-plan approval.”
The village moved to cite the school earlier this month and take it to court after extensive pressure by Hillcrest volunteer firefighters, who responded to a May fire at the building.
Fire Inspector Chris Kear said part of the building has a working sprinkler and fire alarm system hooked into the county emergency communications center. The sprinkler system only has been installed in the addition built to the single-family house, he said.
The school officials have been told they can’t occupy the lower level of the original house but continue to do so, Kear and Hillcrest Fire Chief Lloyd Hovelmann said.
Mates Cantor, a rabbi from Australia, built the 5,282-square-foot building that once had four bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths without any approvals and permits from the village about a decade ago. Cantor sold the property to Ohr Torah for $995,000 in March 2011. The assessed value is $223,700 and the village property tax is $1,073, according figures from the Village Clerk’s Office.
Kear said the school is operating in a single-family residential zone, which can be allowed by permit. The school, among other issues, needs to provide a detailed engineering report on the building, the level of electrical wiring inside the building, and revised site plans.
“The representatives told us that they wanted to do it right,” Kear said. “They did throw a lot of money making some changes. The building remains occupied.”
Hovelmann said the school is both dangerous for the children and firefighters. He said an architect with the state met with a counterpart for the congregation last week during an inspection that found many issues not in compliance with the village and state regulations.
• The Journal News
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